about us
ELCI is a non-profit organization that seeks to identify, recruit, train and nurture leaders from grassroots. This is a bottom-top leadership development approach.
At ELCI, we believe that nurturing and supporting grassroots leaders is central to sustaining our civility, democracy and to encouraging healthy, vibrant communities throughout Nigeria - which is key in the formation of a functional and developed society; where innovations, technological advancement as well as value creation thrive.
We also believe that an effective grassroots leadership development strategy should be an essential component of any community.
Emerging Leaders Community Initiative (ELCI) is convinced that we need a fresh look at leadership development. This new approach will look at developing leaders at grassroot level from communities; it is a bottom – top approach to leadership development.
The litany of systemic issues in our communities are well-known and often recited—poor schools, widespread drug and alcohol addiction and related crime, unemployment, poverty, low wages, unsafe housing and neighborhoods, to name a few. The social fabric of many communities is challenged by tensions and misunderstandings as ethnic, religious and cultural diversity increases. Fewer people have or make the time to be involved in their community or to vote at a time when our society requires bold and committed leadership to face the challenges of the present era. These calls for intentional leadership development strategy. This is where ELCI comes in.
THE ELCI VISION AND MISSION
To raise emerging leaders with the right ideologies towards a safe and profitable community that are:
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Competent
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Economically Independent
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Ideologically Balanced
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Mentally Healthy
Our Team
learn from the best
"ELCI will play a vital role by supporting community-based programs dedicated to developing grassroots leadership. Disadvantaged, disenfranchised underrepresented and overlooked constituencies that need grassroots leadership the most generally lack access to appropriate programs to develop their leaders’ skills or encourage their growth and success. This makes sense—most leadership programs are aimed at established constituencies making a contribution to mainstream institutions—academics, business leaders, public officials, nonprofit executives. Specifically targeted and appropriate leadership programs, offered by training intermediaries or other support organizations, are crucial to developing grassroots leadership"
"How will people in our communities gain voice and the capacity to get things done? Where will they find the toeholds that lead to greater civic participation and political power? What strategies will work when voting rates drop precipitously as one moves down the economic ladder? Grassroots leadership offers an answer, a tool for connecting people into a base and empowering them to act on behalf of themselves and others. Grassroots leadership is a key—to community cohesion and mobilization, to community economic development, to political protection and representation. Grassroots leadership can restore, expand, and reorganize the coalitions that have long guarded the political space in which jobs programs, health care, public education, and civil rights survive. And, it can build new ones—it is necessary to build new ones. New problems and new constituencies need new leadership— and such leadership cannot be sent down or assigned to them; it must come from the grassroots themselves."
" Emerging Leaders Community Initiative (ELCI) is convinced that we need a fresh look at leadership development. This new approach will look at developing leaders at grassroot level from communities; it is a bottom – top approach to leadership development."
