Neighborhood Leadership Academy

Neighborhood Leadership Academy

Neighborhood Leadership Academy 2026
Scholarship Applications and Registration NOW OPEN

Click here to Apply for a Scholarship or Register for NLA 2026

The Neighborhood Leadership Academy connects resources at the University - Creating Whole Communities and University of Missouri Extension - with neighborhood leaders from across the state of Missouri to learn together through an online or in-person project-based curriculum, developing the skills and building the networks necessary to create healthy, vibrant and whole communities.

The Neighborhood Leadership Academy (NLA) provides in-depth and multifaceted leadership training that emphasizes community building principles and strategies, project planning, organizational leadership and management practices, and personal leadership skills.

Participants are actively involved in their neighborhoods and represent communities throughout Missouri. Academy participants may be neighborhood association members, community leaders, resident volunteers, community-based organization staff, business owners, local government staff, and municipal elected officials.

All participants who successfully complete the program will receive a Certificate in Neighborhood Leadership from the Chancellor of the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Continuing Education Units are also available. 

More than 700 neighborhood and organization leaders have participated in NLA, learning the skills and building the networks necessary to create whole communities. Learn more on our alumni page.

What to Expect

Through seminars, discussion, and personal community projects that apply tools and principles, participants will learn:

• Community building principles and strategies
• Personal leadership skills
• Project planning and implementation tools
• Organizational leadership and management practices

During the NLA, participants share and work on a community improvement project for their neighborhood. The following is a sample of their projects:

• Forming a neighborhood association to encourage more community involvement
• Proposing and implementing a community garden
• Developing a church-based community assets assessment
• Planning and obtaining funding for a neighborhood park
• Raising funds to endow a school-based youth cultural enrichment program
  
  

NOW OFFERING THREE OPTIONS

ONLINE EVENING COHORT (Wednesday Evenings)
(Open to anyone in Missouri)

ONLINE DAYTIME COHORT (Tuesdays & Thursdays)
(Open to anyone in Missouri)

STL IN-PERSON COHORT (Tuesday Evenings)
(Open to St. Louis Residents)