Cleveland Leadership Center

Cleveland Bridge Builders enables mid-career professionals of all ages to prepare for meaningful, fulfilling and impactful engagement in the community. The 10-month program provides a unique environment that fosters teamwork, growth and learning through experiential collaboration, hands-on experiences and interactive civic education that results in a truly transformative experience.

Look Up To Cleveland (LookUp) allows high school leaders to develop leadership skills, acquire an understanding of the community and gain a better appreciation of diversity. The program, offered during the school year and as a one-week LookUp Summer Session, includes team projects and unique opportunities to converse with high-level business, government and community leaders. Participants, who are entering either their junior or senior year, are selected from applicants representing public, private, charter and parochial schools across Cuyahoga County.

Civic Leadership Institute is a series of six short, weekly sessions designed to increase the civic knowledge base and engagement for people of all ages and career stages who seek a better understanding of the community's civic infrastructure, are new to the area, or are staring a new assignment. Facilitators are individuals involved in civic matters at the highest levels.

Campus Cleveland attracts, retains and reclaims the next generation of Cleveland's leaders by offering several programs for college students that provide civic education, neighborhood immersion and connections with Cleveland leaders. It brings together summer interns from local businesses and organizations for civic engagement and relationship-building, and works year-round to connect students on campuses across Northeast Ohio with Cleveland businesses, amenities, and leaders.

Cleveland Leadership Center offers alumni of all the Cleveland Leadership Center programs the opportunity to take on a range of civic engagement and educational activities, while continuing to deepen collaborative relationships that further CLC’s mission.

OnBoard Cleveland is a leadership and civic development experience tailored for early-career professionals. A custom-designed, highly engaging curriculum enhances communication skills, strengthens workplace presence, and creates connections between employees and their organizations and Northeast Ohio. Participants leave the program energized and equipped to make a positive difference in their workplace and the community.

Cleveland Leadership Center creates customized civic education programs in response to community needs and requests. Customized programs draw on CLC’s vast network of community leaders and extensive experience in designing civic leadership curriculum.

CLC also creates new programs to educate the general community about issues and engage them in civic life. These programs draw on CLC’s core competencies of curricular design and relationship building, and invest the general public in current community issues.

Accelerate is an innovative pitch competition that enables individuals with entrepreneurial ideas to create positive community change. It provides a public and influential platform that encourages civic entrepreneurs to develop and share a vision to improve our region, offers mentoring and support, and nurtures their creation and development of initiatives before and after the annual competition.

Spark is an annual symposium on innovation and human-centered design thinking. It’s about flipping your mindset, sparking new ways of doing things, and taking risks. It transitioned to an all-virtual platform in 2020, opening up attendance to anyone, anywhere, who is open to new ways of thinking to get beyond the status quo and make a civic impact.