Northern Virginia · Young leaders 18–35 · Founding 2026
We're each doing good work. What could we do together?
LEAP (Leaders Emerge and Partner) brings young leaders from communities across Northern Virginia to one table, to take on the problems we share, guided by the values we share.
Connect. Grow. Serve.
Why
We noticed something.
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The work is already happening.
Young people across the region run service projects, mentorship programs, food drives, and dialogue nights for their own communities.
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Our communities have more in common than we think.
We care about the same neighbors, face the same problems, and hold many of the same values. The overlap is real.
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But we rarely work together.
When collaboration between communities happens, it happens by chance: one event, one introduction, and then it fades.
Social problems need social solutions. The problems we share are best solved by the communities that share them, together.
Our mission
To bring young leaders from Northern Virginia's communities together to find shared solutions to shared problems, guided by the values we all hold in common.
Our vision
A region where leaders of different communities know each other by name, call each other first, and regularly work side by side, so that each community is stronger because of the others.
How
Shared values guide shared action.
Any two communities can co-host an event. What's different here is that our shared values are the standing basis for every choice we make: who we work with, which problems we take on first, and which projects we run.
Common ground we've found so far
Values every community at our table already holds. This is a starting point, not a complete list: every community that joins helps us find more of what we share.
Leaders at the table. Everyone in the work.
At the table: leaders
LEAP brings together the people who already lead in their communities. They meet as equals, plan together, and carry what they learn back home.
In the work: everyone
The projects those leaders plan are open to every member of every community, so neighbors who would never otherwise meet end up working side by side.
We're not here to replace what your community already does. If you already run a food drive or a mentorship night, we don't want to compete with it. We want to give it partners, and a place to share ideas.
What
Committees: where shared values become shared work.
Each committee brings leaders from different communities together around one shared problem, rooted in one shared value. We're starting with three on purpose. The rest should come from the communities who join us. (Names are working names.)
Where it could grow
Get involved
Let's build this together.
LEAP is being founded right now. What it becomes depends on who comes to the table, and there is room at it for you.
Tell us who you are, which community you come from, and what you'd like to build.