Since 2018, Leaders Engaged and Activated to Drive System-wide change (LEADS) has connected innovative ideas generated by community leaders in Lawrence and neighboring communities to the money needed to turn the ideas into projects.
Now LEADS is turning its attention to the North Shore. Over the next year, 30-50 people nominated to participate in LEADS “cohorts” will participate in a rigorous academic case-study course designed to get them to think about and share ideas.
Their ideas will be translated into project plans next winter with work on the projects accelerating into summer 2023.
LEADS’ North Shore initiative has support from organizations and institutions already doing community-building work on the North Shore, including Eastern Bank, the Lynn Business Partnership, Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development, Enterprise Center of Salem, and Peabody-based Citizens Inn.
Eastern CEO Robert F. Rivers called LEADS “a direct linkage to diversity, equity and inclusion. LEADS does that.”
During LEADS’ North Shore initiative announcement on Monday, Lawrence attorney Socrates De La Cruz described how LEADS helped to galvanize Lawrence’s downtown revitalization.
“It brought leaders together,” he said, “Community issues can’t be tackled by one person.”
Some of the projects LEADS has linked to $25 million in funding to date include opioid-abuse prevention and matching people looking for work with manufacturing jobs.
LEADS, in our view, is another useful tool for improving quality of life in North Shore communities. It brings talented people together, in the words of co-founder Jeffrey Bussgang, to “take on problems, dig into problems, and develop solutions.”
Visit www.LEADSMA.org for more information.
