Who We Are

I-LEAD History

From 1995 through 2005, I-LEAD served as the lead training partner for Urban Genesis, Inc., focusing primarily on the development of community leaders in Philadelphia. From 2001 through 2005, I-LEAD served as the lead training partner for the Pennsylvania Weed and Seed program. Through a multi-year grant exceeding $2 million, I-LEAD delivered leadership and organizational development training, and related technical assistance services to faith-based and community organizations in 16 Pennsylvania cities. The program included not only thousands of hours of leadership and organizational development training delivered on-site to cohorts of grassroots faith-based and community leaders, but also ongoing technical assistance, including regional conferences and the provision of mini-grants to support the leadership development and organizational capacity-building objectives of the program.

In 2001, with support from the Comcast Foundation, I-LEAD developed a comprehensive technology curriculum and incorporated it into all of its programming.  With grants exceeding $1 million received from the Pennsylvania Department of Health through the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Minority Health, I-LEAD established its community health programming. Since 2003, I-LEAD has provided health advocacy leadership programs, community health worker training, bio-preparedness, CNA and Vocational ESL training. The training was offered through grassroots and community organizations which serve predominantly minority neighborhoods throughout Central and Southeastern Pennsylvania.

At the behest of adult trainees seeking college credit for their coursework, I-LEAD translated its leadership training into an accredited two year college program in 2005 in collaboration with Harcum College. ACE was piloted at the Chester Education Foundation in Chester, PA and now operates cohorts in Philadelphia, Coatesville, Lancaster, and Reading, PA. ACE Partners are large social service agencies such as Congreso de Latinos Unidos and the Spanish American Civic Association, and faith and community based organizations such as Deliverance Evangelistic Church and Life Transforming Ministries.

As a result of these intensive programs, I-LEAD has been able to build close contacts and relationships with numerous grassroots, faith-based and community organizations across Pennsylvania, spanning small cities, larger urban areas, and the rural communities that connect them. In the West, I-LEAD’s geographic focus has included Erie and Pittsburgh, as well as the smaller communities of Sharon and Farrell, McKeesport, New Kensington and Arnold, Aliquippa, and Wilkinsburg. It has included the Central Pennsylvania and “222 Corridor” communities in Harrisburg, York, Lancaster, Reading, Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton. It has also included the Southeastern Pennsylvania communities of Coatesville, Norristown, Chester and Philadelphia. While other organizations may be able to match this geographic scope, few can claim with credibility to have penetrated and built substantial relationships at the grassroots level. The several thousand strong alumni of I-LEAD—including political leaders and numerous leaders of small organizations and faith congregations across Pennsylvania—form a potent network for serving the public good.