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.
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.
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.
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 carry it out three ways: a three-year youth leadership curriculum called iChoose/iDo/iLead, delivered peer-to-peer in schools; a free weekly personal-growth workshop open to anyone; and 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-based nonprofit serving students and schools across our communities, the educators 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, values-based curriculum to classrooms that might never afford a leadership program on their own, funded by donors who 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.