Building Community & Stimulating Neighborhood Development
Cleveland’s Neighborhood Leadership Development Program to Graduate 3rd Cohort
In October 2008, law enforcement agencies in Cleveland indicted six people in an ongoing investigation into a $5.8 million mortgage fraud scheme in the city’s Slavic Village neighborhood. The investigation was spearheaded by a study of the foreclosure crisis in the neighborhood initiated by Greg Knapp, Chairperson of the Slavic Village Vacant and Abandoned Property Task Force, a body comprised of neighborhood residents and professional staff of various community development groups that he organized in 2006.
Greg is a graduate of the Neighborhood Leadership Development Program (NLDP), established in 2007 by the Mandel Foundation. Along with the Cleveland Foundation, the Mandel Foundation continues to be a major financial sponsor of this innovative program, designed to create a vanguard of neighborhood leadership to address the complex issues facing Cleveland and northeastern Ohio.
In May 2010, the NLDP will graduate 17 emerging leaders from its third cohort.
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Central to the NLDP is the creation of a new style and culture of individual leadership among emerging leaders within the context of their current and potential roles in neighborhoods. To realize its vision, the NLDP uniquely integrates leadership development methods such as individual coaching and group learning with a core curriculum organized around an individual passion for community change in a specific area. |
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Another graduate of the NLDP is Joyce Hood, the founder of KNOWLEDGE, a youth organization in the Union Miles neighborhood that seeks to build bridges between adults and youth, KNOWLEDGE works with individuals and groups to teach youth economics, conflict resolution, peer mediation, nutrition, physical fitness, and other issues.
A member of the National Task Force for Community Mobilization, Joyce has received numerous awards for her work, including, most recently the 2010 State 4H Volunteer Leadership Award for Cuyahoga County.
Lisa-Jean Sylvia is yet another testament to the success of NLDP graduates: As Director of Operations for City Fresh in Cuyahoga County - a nonprofit program that aims to increase access to healthy, local foods in neighborhoods throughout the region - Lisa-Jean helped to build community, improve the economics of the region, and improve health and nutrition. She recently accepted a position as the Harvest for Hunger Senior Campaign Manager with the Cleveland Foodbank.
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A critical element of continuing the development and growth of these and other neighborhood leaders is the NLDP’s Graduate Support Program, which builds upon the NLDP’s mission to develop the diverse leadership abilities of engaged Clevelanders. This is done through programs that support the professional development of the graduates and the building of social capital. |
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The NLDP will be accepting applications this summer for the 2010 class. For more information about the NLDP click here
The long-term vision of the NLDP is to create a new vanguard of neighborhood leaders who are prepared and committed to step into leadership roles to address the complex short- and long-term issues facing the city of Cleveland and the region.