“I don't know where I would be in ministry or if I would still be in it at all…Thank you DVULI family, for shaping who I am today." - Washington, D.C. Graduate
Our Program
Across the country, thousands of Christian leaders are on a mission to make a transformative difference in the lives of urban youth growing up in poverty. Despite their passion and drive, many lack the resources and skills to stay in ministry long-term. The DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative (DVULI) exists to come alongside these leaders and support them with cutting-edge leadership training. Through an intensive 18-month faith-based leadership development program, approximately 60 urban youth workers from five select U.S. cities have been accepted in the training annually since 1998.
The DVULI Investment
Nationwide, Christian leaders aim to positively impact underserved urban youth. Many, however, have limited access to resources and skills to sustain their calling.
DVULI provides transformative faith-based leadership training that empowers leaders in their youth-related work.
Each year, selected leaders from five cities join an 18-month program to develop practical leadership skills, form close-knit cohorts, and foster a collaborative support system.
This initiative equips youth leaders to sustainably impact their personal, organizational, and community lives.
Here’s how it works:
- First, participants are carefully selected to engage in an 18-month training. They proceed through courses to gain practical skills in key leadership areas curated for over 27 years.
- Next, each participant becomes a member of a close-knit cohort of like-minded leaders across their city.
- Finally, program participants develop essential relationships that will benefit them for years. The program is designed to be a lasting community that supports and nourishes their journey for the long term.
Our leaders arrive with an exceptionally high level of passion and energy. We work alongside them to equip them with the skills, experience, and resources to match their passion. They graduate renewed and fully prepared to go and impact their communities.
Core Values Training
These values might not be on our participants’ radar when they come to DVULI. However, when they are encouraged to look at the Core Values intensely and to examine the relevance of accountability, balance, interdependence, empowerment, and leverage in their lives and ministries, it helps them see things from a whole new perspective.
As our skilled trainers dive deep into each core value, participants begin to see how the values work cohesively together to support a strong, healthy, and vibrant ministry leader. They reexamine their leadership approaches. They begin envisioning new ministry structures that they never even knew were possible. They come out on the other side reenergized and better equipped to lead and grow ministries built for sustained vitality and success.
Accountability
Effective leaders regularly seek feedback and guidance from trusted sources.
Balance
Effective leaders understand the importance of living a balanced life, concerned with the development of the whole person.
Interdependence
Effective leaders are effective collaborators, aware of the rich resources present in their organizations and communities.
Empowerment
Effective leaders recognize the importance of bringing out the best in others.
Leverage
Effective leaders know how to use the positive potential of change, knowing that seemingly small actions can have significant impact.
Breakthrough Skills Training
Once our participants have developed a vision of a healthy personal and ministerial approach founded upon the five Core Values, then Breakthrough Skills come into play. These skills fit hand in glove with the Core Values, becoming the ladder’s rungs climbing to an entirely new leadership model.
The Breakthrough Skills are designed to expand how our participants think about key aspects of leadership, such as resources, planning, and change. They include skills such as systems thinking, preparing for possible future scenarios, and the development of youth as effective leaders in a ministry.
Learning these crucial skills helps our participants take small but meaningful steps toward real change. Eventually, that change leads to transformation. And it all starts with a Breakthrough.
To experience sustained success, urban youth workers need a healthy framework to build their ministries. To help provide our participants with this structure, we have shaped our curriculum around the Five Core values: Accountability, Balance, Interdependence, Empowerment, and Leverage.
Certification
DVULI makes available undergraduate or graduate level credit* for participants interested in acquiring semester hours or certification. DVULI launched this opportunity to enhance participant academic profiles and to address the growing demand for higher education credentials among the youth worker profession.
DVULI partners with Cornerstone University to afford this opportunity. Nine semester credit hours are offered at both undergraduate & graduate levels.
*Alumni are not eligible for retroactive credit.
Investment by the Numbers
- 96 % Set aside time to reflect on their personal growth as a leader at least once or twice a month
- 65 % Regularly revisit their ministry plans for improvement (at least once a month)
- 81 % Feel they were doing well maintaining a healthy balance of time between ministry, family, and self
Testimonial
Manessa Medina Albuquerque 2015DVULI has been beneficial to my life and has helped me grow so much in ways I was never going to on my own.
Ray Maldonado Chicago 2007DVULI had a significant impact on me because it was during a time in my life that I’d been wrestling with the future and what the Lord was calling me to do. The Initiative helped me by understanding the core values that were taught, but more importantly, DVULI introduced me to people who had something to say that spoke to me about different issues in my life.
Cheryl Cuthbertson Seattle-Tacoma 2011Over the past nine years, I have used DVULI principles in leading my own teams and sharing the breakthrough skills with international youth leaders in the U.S., Africa, and the Caribbean. Replicating the training has had a significant impact on raising up other leaders who are responsible for youth development.
Melissa Collins Atlanta 2008That marker in my life is so monumental. I always say that DVULI literally changed the course of my life and has led me to where I am.
