LEAD FOR AMERICA
About Us
Lead For America is a national service organization strengthening economic and social opportunity across the United States by investing in the people who know their communities best.
Our fellowship programs provide a structured, place-based service experience. Within that framework, we partner with local organizations as host sites to design the projects fellows take on — rooted in each community's priorities, challenges, and long-term vision. Through this approach, we build leadership pipelines and help communities solve their own challenges.
To support these locally defined projects, we recruit service members from the communities themselves. Our members are intergenerational, come from a wide range of lived experiences, and bring deep community relationships and context. We invest in and train them to fill critical skill gaps, removing barriers so local leaders can serve and drive impact where they call home. Fellows also benefit from being part of a national cohort, gaining peers, mentorship, and shared learning across communities.
Where we live increasingly determines which people, places, and possibilities we can access, leading to a rise in cultural divides, social and economic disparities, and community insularity.
The American Connection Corps is an AmeriCorps program of Lead For America that leverages the power of national service to expand people’s economic opportunities, bridge their social network, and open them up to different perspectives.
Vision
Communities have the talent, leadership, and capacity to design local solutions that respond to their unique needs, challenges, and opportunities so they can thrive.
Mission
We recruit local individuals, provide them with place-based service opportunities, and activate their talent through place-based training, so they can help local mission-driven organizations advance solutions that are informed by place and responsive to community.
Values
We prioritize building deep and lasting relationships that unite our team, Members, and community partners to foster shared growth and lasting impact.
We champion creative solutions and different perspectives to tackle the unique challenges our communities face, empowering leaders to drive lasting impact.
We believe in the promise of national service, dedicating our skills, time, and passion to empower the communities we serve, with a focus on bridging the divides in our nation.
We embrace the responsibility to care for our community, partners, and resources, ensuring their sustainability and long-term success for future generations.
Trust is the cornerstone of our leadership. We build it by cultivating our connection to, respect for, and understanding of the communities we serve, while consistently leading with integrity in all that we do.