Coro New York Expands Neighborhood Leadership Program With $500K Grant From the Wells Fargo Foundation

April 19, 2024 /3BL/ - The Coro New York Leadership Center announced a transformative $500,000 grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation in support of Coro’s Neighborhood Leadership program, a peer-driven mentorship program that develops the skills and networks of diverse, up-and-coming New York City-based community leaders who are focusing on careers in neighborhood development, commercial revitalization, and small business development. The grant represents the largest donation in Coro New York’s history for this program.

With the new funding, Coro New York will expand the Neighborhood Leadership program’s reach to increase capacity and collaboration among diverse economic development and commercial revitalization nonprofit leaders in underserved areas across all five boroughs. The funding will also allow Coro to expand the program from one to three cohorts a year by 2025. In total, Coro has committed to serve 120 graduates within this period.

“Diverse leadership is at the forefront of innovation and community change,” said Darlene Goins, Head of Philanthropy and Community Impact at Wells Fargo and President of the Wells Fargo Foundation. “Given the proven track record behind the Neighborhood Leadership program, Wells Fargo wanted to help expand Coro’s ability to push for more pathways to economic advancement in New York City through diverse, highly-trained leaders.”

Garrett Lucien, Executive Director of Coro, said: “We are so thankful to the Wells Fargo Foundation for this generous grant, which will help us expand the already successful Neighborhood Leadership program. Coro and our leaders care deeply about New York City, and this grant will go a long way towards helping us build a New York with an economy that works for everyone – no matter who they are or where they come from.”

Each year, the Neighborhood Leadership Program participants realize a Neighborhood Change Project to apply their learning in real-time to a current revitalization project. Fueled by this new grant, Coro’s program participants will be able to build on alumni initiatives to keep leaders engaged and continue sharpening the skills and knowledge to lead change.

About Coro’s Neighborhood Leadership Program

For those leading commercial revitalization efforts in their communities— whether working in a Business Improvement District, Merchant Association, local development corporation, Chamber of Commerce, or other nonprofit organization—Coro’s Neighborhood Leadership program provides our city’s top talent with the resources they need to understand how to influence meaningful change and address complex challenges within their neighborhoods. Using New York as a classroom, Neighborhood Leadership participants are deeply immersed in commercial revitalization strategies and are allowed to build leadership skills through intensive training and peer-to-peer learning. Participants leave the program equipped with the knowledge and skills to drive change in their own neighborhoods and an unparalleled network of engaged civic leaders from which to continue to build and grow.

• Knowledge: Neighborhood Leadership deeply immerses participants in building individual and collaborative capacity for practicing leadership and bringing about change in their communities.
• Skills: Neighborhood Leadership uses the City of New York as a lab to explore, test and build effective commercial revitalization strategies to adapt and thrive in challenging environments.
• Network: Neighborhood Leadership connects participants to an accomplished community of Coro Neighborhood Leadership alumni, City leaders, and the broader Coro community from all industries and sectors, who are dedicated to supporting one another and to improving the City in which we live and work.

About Coro

Coro New York is the city’s premier leadership training organization. Since 1984, no other group has put this insight into practice more successfully than Coro. Coro is a community of over 3,600 graduates who, through our single and collaborative efforts, make the city great.

Graduates come away from Coro with a deeper understanding of how the city works, the leadership skills to change it, and a network of engaged and influential alumni to help them reach their goals. They are part of a collaborative community with a shared belief that a single person, with the right knowledge, skills, and network, is what will make New York a better place for all who live and work here. Coro New York Alumni include Members of Congress, United States Senators, New York City Council Members, and senior-level executives.