Everything we do comes back to one belief: leadership isn't a title you're handed. It's a set of habits you build, one honest choice at a time. Here's what that looks like written down.
To create a more united world by sharing a global leadership team-building platform that empowers youth and adults with leadership skills, personal character, a positive self-image, and a real desire for unity.
In plain words: we want to help people work together better, by teaching young people and adults to lead with skill, character, and confidence.
To change the world by inspiring youth and adults to live a healthy lifestyle, to lead themselves and others with character, and to treat one another with mutual respect and high integrity.
In plain words: we help people take care of themselves, lead with character, and treat each other with respect.
To positively influence the lives of youth and adults by bringing leadership training and character-building programs to local communities and the wider world, using the John C. Maxwell leadership curriculum to share the value of personal growth with everyone who's willing.
In plain words: we want leadership and character training to reach every young person and adult who's willing to grow, here and beyond.
The mission in plain talk
Most people picture leadership as the person out front giving orders. We see it differently. Real leadership starts on the inside, with the choices you make when nobody's watching, and works its way out to the people around you.
That's why our programs are values-based. Values-based leadership development treats personal transformation as the path to thriving, and it recognizes that real change means taking action that reflects people-centered values. It's the same approach the Maxwell Leadership Foundation has used in its country-transformation work around the world. Dr. Maxwell saw that if young people could learn and practice these same principles, we could lay a foundation that sets them, and their communities, up for lasting, positive change. Our youth program was born out of exactly that vision.
We do it three ways. First, a three-year youth leadership program called iChoose/iDo/iLead, taught student to student in schools. Second, a free weekly workshop open to anyone. Third, free Lunch & Learn sessions for groups and teams. Different doors, same house. And wherever we can, the door is free, because a mission that only reaches people who can pay isn't much of a mission.
What guides us
Lead with heart, because people can always tell when you don't. Care comes first, and everything real follows from it.
Keep your humor, because the work is hard and laughing beats quitting. Growth should feel human, not heavy.
Actually help. Real, practical, no-strings help, because that's the only reason any of this is worth doing.
Who we serve
We're a Long Island nonprofit. We serve students, the teachers who pour into them, and adults who want to keep growing as leaders at work, at home, and in their neighborhoods. As an authorized facilitator of John Maxwell's iLead program, we bring a proven leadership program to classrooms that could never afford one. Donors pay for it, because they believe the next generation is worth it.
If you'd like to know more about our reach, our results, or how to bring a program to your school or group, we'd love to talk, honestly and in plain language.
Every $27 puts one more student in a leadership program. Give, host a workshop, or bring iLead to a school: pick the door that fits.