Time Line of NLI and Its Major Programs

1990
  • The Cleveland Summit on Education convenes community stakeholders, who identify the need for recreational and educational opportunities in low-income communities not served by recreation centers or settlement houses.
1992
  • The Schools As Neighborhood Resources (SNR) program begins operations under the auspices of the Greater Cleveland Roundtable at four Cleveland high schools.
1994
  • The Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Centers Association (NCA) takes over the operation of the SNR program.
  • Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland (NLC) is launched through a partnership between NCA and the Center for Neighborhood Development at Cleveland State University. The first class graduates in December.
1995
  • Graduates of Class 2 of Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland begin exploratory discussions that lead to the formation of the Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Forum.
1996
  • The Forum articulates a mission, elects officers, and establishes committees.
1997
  • Muqit Sabur and Jacquie Gillon attend a national “train the trainer” workshop for a parent leadership program originally developed in Connecticut.
1998
  • The State Family and Children First Council contracts with NCA to launch the Parents As Leaders Training Academy.
  • Forum members, working with Don Slocum, submit a concept paper to the Kellogg Foundation outlining a new organization to be called the Neighborhood Leadership Institute.
2000
  • Forum activities cease due to lack of staffing.
2001
  • Three NLC graduates and active Forum members (Blaine Griffin, Bill Newsome, and Muqit Sabur), working with Don Slocum, incorporate the Neighborhood Leadership Institute as a nonprofit corporation in the State of Ohio.
2002
  • The Cuyahoga County Family and Children First Council contracts with NCA to run another session of the Parents As Leaders Training Academy.
  • Don Slocum meets with program officers of The Cleveland Foundation to explore the possibility of involving grassroots neighborhood leaders in grantmaking decisions that affect Cleveland neighborhoods.
  • NCA's Board of Trustees decides to end sponsorship of programs (including SNR and Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland) not directly related to NCA's member settlement houses.
2003
  • NLI begins operations in its own office space with an executive director and full-time staff.
  • The NLI Board of Trustees expands from the original three members to nine and begins to meet monthly.
  • NLI takes over responsibility for SNR and Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland from NCA. SNR completes its twelfth year of operation; Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland graduates its nineteenth and twentieth classes.
  • The Cleveland Foundation gives NLI a grant for $295,000 to support NLI’s start-up Business Plan. The Bruening Foundation provides $30,000 in start-up support.
  • The Cleveland Foundation contracts with NLI to train the Grantmaking and Monitoring Committee for Neighborhood Connections and to provide technical assistance to grant recipients.
2004
  • The Cuyahoga County Family and Children First Council contracts with NLI to run another session of the Parents As Leaders Training Academy.