Steering young people to shape the future of their communities
Spotlight on the work of L!FE Leaders, a Detroit-based organization chosen for the 2025 Youth Skills and Employment Accelerator. L!FE Leaders supports youth with the skills they need to find stable careers.
L!FE Leaders is empowering young people in Detroit to create the future they envision for themselves and their communities.
The organization’s programs provide youth aged 14 to 24 with career and life skills training that helps them find their voice, become more confident, access professional networks, and be ready to join the workforce.
As well as relevant work experience, young people explore a wide range of topics such as financial literacy, college and career readiness, health and wellness, relationship building, and community engagement.
Markuis Cartwright first came across L!FE Leaders in 2016 as a high school student. He said the program he joined made him “able to understand myself and my city a lot more than I thought that I did”. Now Markuis works for the organization as Associate Director, Community Relations and Partnerships. He added: “We advocate for our share of the future to make sure the world is truly better.”
L!FE Leaders was chosen by the Global Business Coalition for Education to take part in the 2025 Youth Skills and Employment Accelerator.
With employers across all sectors in the United States struggling to find young talent with the expertise they need, the Accelerator is part of a nationwide drive to ensure that by 2030 all young Americans will have the skills needed to find work in a rapidly-changing job market. The Accelerator equips nonprofits with the tools and support they need to make a real difference in the lives of young people from underserved communities.
L!FE Leaders expects to impact the lives of more than 1,000 youth in 2025 and plans to grow that number over the next five years. It aims to utilize the Accelerator’s supportive network of organizations and opportunities available to help with that expansion.
“We’re excited to be a part of the Accelerator, which will support us in aligning Detroit youth with stable careers in order to address barriers rooted in opportunity inaccessibility,” said Angelica Williams, Associate Director of Youth Engagement.
We advocate for our share of the future to make sure the world is truly better
Markuis Cartwright, Associate Director, Community Relations and Partnerships at L!FE! Leaders
L!FE Leaders runs five activities each year:
- The bi-annual Scholarship Marathon, which equips high school and college-aged youth with resources and support to pursue scholarship opportunities.
- The Detroit College, Career, and Community Immersion program, which gives 17 to 24- year-old alumni pipelines to careers in Detroit.
- The Detroit Youth Summit, the only youth policy conference in Michigan.
- The Detroit Youth Summit Council, which pursues public policy work to reflect the voices and opinions of the annual summit.
- Excellence Corps, a year-round training program that provides workforce development training to predominantly metro Detroit youth. The annual cohort is expected to increase to more than 250 by 2026.
L!FE Leaders also collaborates with organizations and companies to put youth voices and opinions at the heart of executive-level decision-making. Recent partnerships included the Michigan Department of Transportation, Detroit Future City, and the Michigan Department of State.
L!FE Leaders and the other organizations in the 2025 Accelerator will join the alumni network of 28 previous participants which collectively have positively impacted more than 250,000 young people. When they complete the program, nonprofits and their leaders stay in the growing network – helping them to work with others and get peer support.
Businesses that support the Accelerator have opportunities to enhance brand recognition and strengthen community ties. They can also provide pro-bono products and services to support participating organizations.
Next resource