Our Story
Transforming Lexington Into A City For God
Lexington is a growing city made up of a diverse set of neighborhoods, communities, and people groups and comes with a unique set of challenges.
Lexington Leadership Foundation (LLF) believes that how we engage people and challenges will impact the future success and cohesiveness of Lexington whether for good or ill. LLF sees the city, especially urban neighborhoods as places of promise and possibility, opportunity and faith, rather than risk and uncertainty.
We cultivate this shift in thinking by driving the wheel of permanent change. With leadership at its core, the wheel of change is fueled by three strategic functions- engaging people of faith and good will, building capacity of others and developing joint initiatives.
As leaders and organizations employ these three strategic functions our city becomes better. In short, Lexington is transformed by Jesus into a City for God.
Engaging People of Faith and Good Will
We believe city wide transformation requires collaboration across multiple sectors, such as faith, business, government and education. Serving as an intermediary, we connect and engage these diverse partners to develop comprehensive strategies that tackle the toughest issues of our city.
Building Capacity in Others
We believe leaders drive change. Our leaders come from various walks of life including urban youth, grass roots community organizers, marketplace entrepreneurs and city officials. Training, coaching and mentoring leaders results in empowered people serving the city in their circle of influence.
History of LLF
In A Letter From Our Board Chair
"In 1998 four of us from Lexington attended a Christian Community Development Association meeting in St. Louis. I attended a break-out session hosted by Leadership Foundations. That seminar exposed me to concepts which gave me a handle for my heart. Spurred on by what we learned there, we started Lexington Leadership Foundation in 1999. LLF's founding leaders felt that the first action should be to pray, and thus our prayer ministry was started. Next, a survey of inner-city ministry leaders and social service providers was undertaken to determine the pressing needs facing our city which were not currently being addressed by any other agency. The overwhelming cry was for help with children and youth. I could never have imagined what would follow!
Since it was founded, one of the strategies of LLF has been to partner with local churches and other organizations in order to impact the most vulnerable in our city. In the process of working together towards a common goal, we build unity among the diverse parts.
LLF's growth to date has occurred as a result of God's blessing on our efforts. Other significant factors have included the involvement of partners and volunteers from across a wide section of our city and grass-roots community efforts. Our national affiliate, Leadership Foundations, has provided on going professional development and best practices.
Let's keep working together Lexington and make this A City for God!"
