Neighborhood Leadership Development Program Seeks 2017 Applicants

Caroline J. Peak

In 2006, the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation, along with former Cleveland Mayor Michael White, established a leadership training program for engaged community leaders.  The Neighborhood Leadership Development Program is a free, 16 session community engagement training program for residents of Cleveland, and its inner ring suburbs, who are working on projects within the City of Cleveland and who are determined to make a positive impact on their communities.

After the application process, 20 committed individuals are chosen for the program year.  NLDP participants and graduates have many interests and are working on a wide variety of issues to improve life in their communities.

Caroline J. Peak is one such person.  She is the Collinwood Library Branch Manager.

Caroline’s passion is improving the lives of youth in her community.  This commitment has led her to help in creating the Collinwood Youth Academy for school age youth, which begins this September 23rd at the Collinwood Library.  The program is a partnership of Cleveland Public Library Office of Program Services, The Salvation Army, Collinwood Recreation Center and the Collinwood Nottingham Development Corporation.

The goal of the Collinwood Community Youth Academy, #YouthMattersHere, is to empower youth through educational enlightenment, literacy, self-worth, leadership, and community/civic engagement.

Participating youth would learn about building positive traits, knowing your self- worth, negotiating skills and team building strategies.  Community organizational skills such as understanding community structure and identifying community needs will also be taught, as well as, taking on a community issue to resolve and learning problem solving skills

Caroline credits the Neighborhood Leadership Development Program, saying “Being a part of NLDP and learning program planning skills has helped the project grow from a pilot to implementation this year where we will provide youth programming each month using the tools learned in the NLDP sessions like ‘Process for Community Change’, ‘Program Planning’ and, ‘Marketing/Communications’ to enrich our curriculum and provide on-going evaluation on impact and outcomes.”

For information about the Youth Academy contact Caroline Peak at 216-623-6934 or caroline.peak@cpl.org

The application period for the NLDP program runs through August 4th.

The 16 sessions take place on Saturdays at Trinity Commons at 2230 Euclid Avenue beginning August 26.   For more information and an application, visit www.nldpcleveland.com or call 216-776-6167.