The Emerging Leaders National Network qualifies chapters, coordinates across regions, and delivers the next generation of CVI — city by city.
The network sits in the background as the backbone while chapters lead with their own city identity.
The umbrella and national backbone — qualifies chapters, coordinates across regions, connects funders to the field.
City-level entities that carry the local identity. Detroit is the first and the proof of concept.
The branded service strategy delivered inside every chapter — a common language across the network.
One path from first contact to an active chapter. Every step is tracked inside the network platform.
Numbers drawn from the network dashboard — updated as chapters report in.
The network gives funders one view of the field and one place to put dollars where they work. Detroit is live today, with chapters emerging across the country.
Start a Funder ConversationThree layers, one system. The network stays in the background while chapters lead with their city identity.
The umbrella entity. Qualifies chapter applicants, holds standards, coordinates across regions, connects funders to the field, and manages the platform and toolkit. The network is incubated with Cities United as fiduciary.
City-level entities with their own identity and leadership. Detroit is the first chapter and the proof of concept. Each chapter is earned — not granted — through the qualification pipeline. More chapters are emerging across the East Coast, the South, the West Coast, and the Midwest.
The branded service strategy delivered inside every chapter. A common language that makes the network legible to funders, practitioners, and policymakers across cities.
A national brand doesn't survive in community violence intervention. Trust is local. Relationships are local. The chapter holds the local identity while the network holds the standards and the infrastructure.
This is how you scale CVI without losing what makes it work. Detroit doesn't become "the ELNN chapter in Detroit." Detroit stays Detroit — and the network makes Detroit replicable.
The Power Map is the first step. It qualifies your organization for a chapter and starts the pipeline.
Begin the Power MapOne path from first contact to an active chapter. It begins with the Power Map — the qualification survey at the heart of the network.
A prospective chapter lead is identified through network relationships, funder referrals, or direct outreach. The coordinator opens a tracked record in the platform.
The applicant completes the Power Map survey. This is the diagnostic at the heart of qualification — it scores organizational readiness, community relationships, and leadership capacity.
Key stakeholders, funders, and practitioners in the city are convened to validate the organization's standing in the community and confirm the conditions for a chapter.
The network makes a qualified-or-not decision based on the Power Map score and Proof Panel findings. This is a real decision with real stakes — not every applicant advances.
The chapter's language, service map, and partner directory are captured in the platform. This is what makes the chapter legible to the network and to funders.
The toolkit is deployed, the cadence is set, and the chapter joins the network. From here, the chapter leads locally while the network coordinates nationally.
The Power Map is not a grant application. It is a diagnostic — designed to surface what's real, not what looks good on paper.
Does the organization have genuine trust with the people it says it serves? Can it name names and show receipts?
Does the leadership have the capacity to run a chapter — to coordinate, report, and stay in the cadence?
Who else in the city is part of the chapter? Can referrals move across neighborhood lines?
Every path into the network begins here. The survey creates a tracked record and opens the qualification pipeline.
Begin the Power MapThe branded service strategy delivered inside every chapter. A common language that makes the network legible across cities.
Services are organized as a ladder. A person is met where they are, and the work moves them up as each level of need is steadied.
CVI organizations often specialize in one rung. The framework acknowledges this and builds coordination across rungs — so a person in a crisis moment gets survival support today and a path to purpose over time.
The ladder is also the common language that lets partners in a chapter speak to each other and to funders about what they do and where they fit.
Organizations inside a chapter share information, coordinate, and run referrals across neighborhood lines — so a person is served regardless of which door they reach first.
Person-to-person introductions across neighborhoods — never a dropped referral. The coordinator stays with the person through the transfer.
Trusted figures trained to extend reach and surface needs early — before a moment becomes a crisis. The connective tissue of the chapter.
A live inventory of partner organizations, services, and capacity inside the chapter. The directory that makes coordination possible and visible to funders.
A service framework. A common language. A set of standards that makes CVI work legible, coordinated, and funder-ready across chapters.
A program. A curriculum. A replacement for the organizations already doing the work. It is the structure that connects them and makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Start the Power Map to begin qualification and see if your organization is a fit for a chapter.
Begin the Power MapEach chapter carries its own city identity, supported by the national network. Chapters are earned — not granted.
Funded by Force Detroit and operating as the model every future chapter is taught, Detroit is live today.
The pipeline is active in multiple cities. Chapters emerge through the Power Map qualification process — not through selection or application.
Multiple cities in qualification. Power Maps in progress.
Organizational relationships established. Pipeline opening.
Funder conversations active. Identification underway.
Detroit is the anchor. Adjacent city pipeline forming.
Whether you want to form a new chapter, join an existing one, or partner inside a chapter — it all begins with the Power Map.
Your city doesn't have a chapter yet. Start the Power Map and enter the qualification pipeline.
Your city has a chapter forming or active. The Power Map places you inside the existing chapter.
You're a service provider who wants to be on the service map. The Power Map opens the conversation.
The Power Map tells us. Take 10 minutes to answer the questions — and we'll tell you what the path looks like from there.
Begin the Power MapNumbers drawn from the network dashboard — updated as chapters report in.
Live impact numbers — people engaged, conflicts interrupted, organizations coordinated — will populate as chapters report data into the platform.
CVI impact is hard to measure. We don't pretend otherwise. Here is what the network tracks — and why.
People reached through chapter organizations, neighborhood influencers, and warm handoffs. The reach of the network on the ground.
Conflicts interrupted before they escalate. Tracked at the case level by chapter organizations and reported into the platform.
Referrals moved across neighborhood lines. Warm handoffs completed. The connective tissue of the chapter in action.
Detroit is not just the first chapter — it is the documentation of the model. Every lesson, every refinement, every failure and success is being captured so it can be taught to the next city.
Force Detroit provides the funding that makes Detroit possible. The relationship between Force Detroit and the network is the template for how funders engage at the city level.
The more chapters in the network, the more impact we can document — and the stronger the case for CVI funding everywhere.
Begin the Power MapThe network gives funders one view of the field and one place to put dollars where they work. Detroit is live. More cities are coming.
CVI organizations operate city by city with no common language, no shared data, and no coordinated entry point for funders who want to invest at scale.
Violence that didn't happen is difficult to count. Funders want evidence — and most CVI organizations don't have the infrastructure to produce it.
What works in Detroit doesn't automatically work in Houston. Without a framework, every new city is starting from scratch.
One entry point. Qualified organizations. Common language. Cross-city data. The infrastructure CVI funding has been missing.
Instead of sourcing and vetting organizations city by city, funders engage the network once and access the entire portfolio of qualified chapters.
Every chapter has passed through the Power Map qualification process. The network has already done the diligence — funders can move with confidence.
The Build Peace Framework gives every chapter a shared vocabulary. Funders can compare across cities using the same framework and the same metrics.
As chapters report into the platform, funders see aggregate impact across the network — not just a single city's numbers but the pattern across many.
Fund the backbone — the platform, qualification process, toolkit, and coordination infrastructure. Your investment multiplies across every chapter in the network.
Fund a specific city — the organizations inside a chapter, the coordinator, the service map. Place-based investment with network-level accountability.
Partner with the network to open a chapter in a city where you already have relationships or strategic interest. Force Detroit is the model.
The Emerging Leaders National Network is incubated with Cities United as fiduciary — giving funders an established, trusted institution to flow dollars through.
This is not a startup asking for trust from scratch. It is a network incubated inside an institution that has been in the field for decades.
Start the conversation. Tell us what you're trying to achieve and we'll show you where the network can move it.
Start a Funder Conversation