By Pam Turos
As Michael White was nearing the end of his fourth successful term as Cleveland mayor in 2002, he was already beginning to envision and invest in a new phase of city leadership that he saw as critical to the future of the city. In his mind, there were plenty of leadership programs in Cleveland – these programs were designed for corporate leaders, high potential civic leaders, industry-specific leaders, etc. – but White saw a substantial gap in the leadership sector when it came to the unsung heroes and dedicated grassroots leaders who were already working tirelessly to improve their community.
White approached his close friend and Cleveland philanthropic leader Mort Mandel – not once, not twice, but three times, asking Mandel to invest in his vision for what would become the Cleveland Neighborhood Leadership Development Program (NLDP).
Again and again, White’s proposal to build a network of grassroots leaders in Cleveland was rejected, and not because it wasn’t a good plan . . .
Curious about the rest of this story? Click here for Episode 22 of the Bending the Arc podcast, the first in this grassroots leadership series, featuring an intimate conversation with Michael White about his tireless commitment to ensuring that engaged community leaders would have a seat at the table and the leadership skills to succeed once they got there.
Michael White persisted, of course, and the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation’s community leadership program, NLDP, recently graduated its 16th cohort of participants who are represented in every area of the city – and at all levels of leadership in Greater Cleveland.
Throughout this 8-part series, Bending the Arc host Mark Joseph interviews NLDP program graduates and coaches, highlighting the 11-month program’s innovative curriculum and programs that have come to life through leadership development in five core service areas: community building, family and youth programming, health and wellness, economic development, and urban agriculture.
During each episode in the series, Mark and the NLDP leaders offer a “mini-TED talk” level of inspiration, and we’ve highlighted an “NLDP nugget” from each of these episodes for you below:
Episode 2: Cultivating Community Connections with Bridgette Smith-Jackson (Vesta Corporation) Diana Sette (Possibilitarian Garden) and Josh Jones Forbes (Northwest Neighborhoods CDC). Forbes’ call to action for racial justice includes asking his white neighbors in the Detroit Shoreway community to “stop calling the police on your neighbors to avoid uncomfortable conversations.” Smith-Jackson, a leader in the Rainbow Terrace apartment community, describes herself as someone who used to be a “brawler, working harder, not smarter” – but since NLDP she is now seen as someone who maneuvers at a much more intentional level – something her neighbors and friends noticed right away.
Episode 3: Impacting Youth and Families with Letitia Lopez (Julia De Borges Cultural Arts Center) Dennis Knowles (The Fishing Foundation) and Tonya Perkins Stoudemire. Stoudemire is the founder of Bessie’s Angels foster care housing and support program, who credits the NLDP program for its sustained growth to provide two safe living spaces for young women in the foster care system.
Episode 4: Health and Wellness featuring Becca Britton (Neighborhood Pets), Quiana Howard (Cardiovascular Health Equity Scientist) and Sara Murphy (Edna House) who are tireless advocates in the fields of community building, pet-owner support and advocacy, health equity, and addiction recovery. The power of finding your people and benefiting from the “family of NLDP” is an overarching theme in this episode. Howard is a PhD student at CWRU and works full time, but she is motivated by her experiences as a Black woman witnessing disparities in the health care system. Having done a lot of medical leadership training and with a long list of academic accomplishments, she never saw herself as a leader until NLDP, which she describes as “a selfish commitment, I finally did for myself.”
Episode 5: Skill Building for Community Change with Stephanie Mukenyi Wahome (Art of Me), Mary Kauffman (TechBOOM), and Jonathan Steirer (Cleveland Global Shapers). During this conversation Steirer describes a common phenomena among leaders known as imposter syndrome – describing the unique and powerful energy of NLDP, the depth of diverse lived experiences, and the inspiring passion he saw among his fellow participants which helped him to see himself and his leadership potential differently. This episode also highlights youth, seniors and resident-centered empowerment in community change and intent vs. impact in the change planning process. “Making sure, each day, we unlearn what we have learned to relearn,” says Mary – to look within ourselves and examine our biases to make space for new learning.
Episode 6: Urban Agriculture is the final panel of graduates from NLDP, featuring Veronica Walton (Food Depot to Health), Erika Ervin-Acy (Gardening in the District), and Mikki Smith (Little Africa Food Collaborative) – from master gardening and aquaponics, sustainable urban food systems, to TV and video production, this group of inspiring everyday leaders used their NLDP experience to build on their natural passion for healthy food and community, affirming them as leaders who were already taking initiative and providing a deeper understanding of Cleveland’s existing resources, and providing relationships and skills to expand their impact.
Episode 7: Coaching Grassroots Leaders features the highly celebrated coaches of the NLDP program: Joe Black (Cleveland Foundation) Audra Jones (Krystal Klear Communications) Ian Heisey (Ideastream) and lead coach Pam Turos (Mandel Foundation) sharing their journeys as community leaders and coaches, whose role is to support participants in seeing their own potential, building skills and capacity for their leadership journey. “If I do my job well, I’ll be able to give hope in times of adversity and I’ll be able to give knowledge in times of complacency,” said Coach Joe – capturing the essence of the coaching relationship which sets the NLDP program apart from other leadership training programs.
Episode 8: Reflections and Future Aspirations closes out the grassroots leadership series, and we are back in conversation with Mayor Michael White, the visionary and driving force behind NLDP. Mark Joseph and White discuss the impact of the “NLDP is everywhere” phenomenon that now exists in Cleveland, with 310 graduates serving all over Greater Cleveland. White describes watching the evolution of NLDP graduates moving into high level philanthropy leadership roles and the recent collective efforts of graduates who collectively organized to prevent the destruction of a public park. And Joseph, who is also a faculty member for the program, shared his impressions from years of engaging with the NLDP community, including the spiritual and heartfelt moments when NLDP participants have been the teachers. “It is an absolute essential element of improving a community, you can’t bypass people who are committed to improving their neighborhoods. If you do that,” says White, “the neighborhood will be worse off.” White shares this and other essential lessons he has learned over the past two decades shifting the power paradigm for positive community change in Cleveland.