A Brief History of NLI and Its Programs
Schools As Neighborhood Resources
Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland
Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Forum
Parents As Leaders Training Academy
Neighborhood Connections Technical Assistance
Neighborhood Leadership Institute
Schools As Neighborhood Resources (SNR)
In May 1990 the Cleveland Summit on Education, through a process involving over 700 community stakeholders, identified a need for more recreational and educational opportunities in low-income neighborhoods not served by recreation centers or settlement houses. The Schools As Neighborhood Resources program was created to address this need. The program began operating in 1992 under the auspices of the Greater Cleveland Roundtable with funding from the City of Cleveland Recreation Department and the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.
The program initially operated at four school sites: Lincoln-West High School, John Marshall High School, Collinwood High School, and John Adams High School. John Adams ceased to be an SNR site when the Board of Education closed the school. Nathan Hale Middle School, Charles Mooney Middle School, and Harvey Rice Elementary School were later added as sites.
In 1994 the Roundtable asked the Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Centers Association (NCA) to take over the program. NCA inherited not only the program but also its staff and its funding.
In 2003 the Neighborhood Leadership Institute (NLI) took over responsibility for the operation of the SNR program. NLI also inherited the program’s staff and funding. The program currently operates at six sites from October to mid-April. A special summer SNR program began at Collinwood High School in 2004.
Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland (NLC)
In 1992 the Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Centers Association (NCA) began to pursue funding from the Kellogg Foundation to support an initiative that would transform NCA’s member settlement houses into “family centers.” A key component of the family centers concept was the training of grassroots neighborhood leaders.
Eventually, NCA received a five-year, $1 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation to support the family centers concept. The Cleveland Foundation, the Gund Foundation, and the BP Foundation also provided support. As a result, NCA was able to develop Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland in partnership with the Center for Neighborhood Development at Cleveland State University. The first class of leaders graduated in December 1994. When the Kellogg Foundation funding ended, the local funders continued to provide funding for the program.
In 1996 outreach workers, organizers, and City Health Department staff members associated with the Healthy Family/Healthy Start initiative began receiving training through Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland.
In 2003 the Neighborhood Leadership Institute took over responsibility for the operation of Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland. The partnership with Cleveland State continues. Classes 19, 20 and 21 have graduated since NLI took over the program.
Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Forum
In 1995 graduates of Class 2 of Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland began to explore the possibility of building on the new relationships and associations that they had formed through their shared experience of the NLC program. After a year of meetings and consensus-building, the graduates decided to launch the Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Forum with the stated mission "To create a partnership of neighborhoods that will enhance active citizen participation in community affairs."
Although the Forum never sought to establish itself as a legal entity, the members did elect officers, form committees, and organize events and programs. The committees included Youth and Education, Health and the Environment, and Economic Development and Employment. Members also attended seminars and training sessions on such topics as board development, the tax status of nonprofit organizations, and public speaking and proposal writing.
In addition, Forum members developed relationships with leadership programs in Flint, Buffalo, and Dayton. With funding from the Kellogg Foundation, Forum members facilitated a Leadership Exchange with Ecuador and Zimbabwe. Other international connections included a Forum-sponsored event at which neighborhood residents had a chance to meet and speak with Naomi Tutu, daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.
Although Don Slocum and Jacquie Gillon (both employed at the time by NCA) lent time and support to the efforts of the Forum members, there was no funding for official, dedicated staff support to the Forum. As a result, it became increasingly difficult for graduates to find the time to organize events and to keep the committees up and running. The last Forum meetings and events were held in 2000.
Parents As Leaders Training Academy (PALTA)
In 1997 Muqit Sabur, who had helped to create the Forum, and Jacquie Gillon, then at NCA, traveled to Columbus to attend a national “train the trainer” workshop for a parent leadership program that had been developed in Connecticut.
In 1998 the Ohio Family and Children First Council contracted with NCA to develop and run a parent leadership program. Muqit Sabur and Jacquie Gillon served as facilitators for what came to be known as the Parents As Leaders Training Academy.
In 2002 the Cuyahoga County Family and Children First Council contracted with NCA to run another session of the Parents As Leaders Training Academy. Two graduates of Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland, Marcia Bufford and Cornelius McElrath, served as facilitators for the classes.
In 2004 the Cuyahoga County Family and Children First Council contracted with NLI to run another session of PALTA. NLC graduate Marcia Bufford and Faruq Abdul-Khaliq, a graduate of both PALTA and NLC, led the classes.
Neighborhood Connections Technical Assistance
In 2002 Don Slocum, then at NCA, met with program officers at The Cleveland Foundation, at their request, to discuss the possibility of involving grassroots neighborhood leaders in grantmaking decisions affecting Cleveland neighborhoods. In 2003 The Cleveland Foundation launched Neighborhood Connections, a small grants program to fund neighborhood projects. The foundation contracted with the Neighborhood Leadership Institute to train neighborhood residents chosen to serve on the initiative’s Grantmaking and Monitoring Committee and to provide technical assistance to grant recipients. Several graduates of NLC serve on the Grantmaking and Monitoring Committee.
Neighborhood Leadership Institute
In 1998 several graduates of NLC who were active in the Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Forum worked with Don Slocum (then at NCA) to submit a concept paper to the Kellogg Foundation outlining a new organization to be called the Neighborhood Leadership Institute. The concept paper referred to the encouraging progress of the Forum but also highlighted the need for "a more comprehensive vision and organizational structure."
Although the paper did not garner funding from the Kellogg Foundation, the graduates continued to refine the concept. In the summer of 2001, three NLC graduates who were instrumental in developing the Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Forum (Blaine Griffin, Bill Newsome, and Muqit Sabur), again working with Don Slocum (still with NCA at the time), incorporated the Neighborhood Leadership Institute as a nonprofit organization in the State of Ohio.
Over the next year they explored options for securing funding and starting the operations of the newly incorporated organization. At the same time, NCA’s Board of Trustees in 2002 had undertaken a strategic planning process. As a consequence of that process, NCA’s trustees decided to end NCA’s sponsorship of any programs not directly connected to one of NCA’s member settlement houses. That decision meant that programs such as SNR and Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland, though still funded, could no longer operate under the auspices of NCA.
Don Slocum and the three original trustees who had incorporated NLI saw NCA’s decision as an opportunity for NLI to begin its operations. NLI assumed responsibility for SNR and Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland, and also took on the funding and the NCA staff members associated with the programs. A substantial start-up grant from The Cleveland Foundation provided operating support to NLI for its first two years. A contract with the foundation for support of the Neighborhood Connections small grants program provided additional revenue. The three original trustees reached an agreement with Don Slocum to serve as NLI’s executive director and started a process to enlist more NLC graduates as board members.
NLI secured its own office space and opened for business on January 2, 2003. (Don Slocum and the other NLI staff members remained on the NCA payroll for several months until the NLI payroll was set up.) The Board of Trustees expanded to nine members and began to meet on a monthly basis.
In its first year NLI successfully operated the SNR program at six sites and completed two Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland classes. In addition, NLI participated in training the inaugural Grantmaking and Monitoring Committee for Neighborhood Connections and provided technical assistance to the first two rounds of grant recipients.