Empowering Disadvantaged Youth: Building Tomorrow's Leaders Today

The Next Century Leadership Foundation (NCLF) was founded in 2016 in the Trinidad neighborhood of northeast Washington, D.C., as a community development initiative. The Trinidad area is bordered by Ivy City and National Arboretum, Carver-Langston, and Gallaudet University, and is situated just north of the H Street Corridor. At that time, the area was plagued by violence, including drug dealing, gang activity, street fights, and homicides.

Despite these challenges, we committed ourselves to transforming the neighborhood through a variety of outreach programs designed to uplift and support residents. We offered a range of services to address immediate needs and long-term development. These included GED classes, career counseling, after-school programs for young students, and martial arts classes, all aimed at providing the youth with constructive outlets and essential skills. In addition, we hosted neighborhood parties to foster community bonding, organized clean-up initiatives to revitalize public spaces, and provided vital services such as shower facilities for the homeless and meals for those in need.

Given limited resources and space, we adapted creatively to serve the community. Our GED classes were conducted inside a bus parked in a public parking lot, and many activities were carried out in a tent set up in a formerly trash-filled area we had cleaned. The shower services were provided using a transportable trailer equipped with a water tank, generator, and water heater to ensure the homeless had access to basic hygiene facilities.

During the summer, we provided educational programs for neighborhood children, many of whom had never had the opportunity to visit local attractions like museums, zoos, or beaches despite living only a short distance away. These summer programs included field trips, with breakfast and lunch provided, allowing the kids to explore new environments and gain enriching experiences that many had never known.

Despite our best efforts, our services and initiatives in the Trinidad neighborhood did not yield the results we had hoped for. The area was transformed, but it was not our services or initiatives that drove these changes; rather, it was commercial development and the city’s beautification policies. As rent and housing prices soared as a result, many longtime residents were displaced, making it increasingly difficult to serve the very community we had set out to help. The revitalization and demographic shifts, largely driven by commercial interests and city policies, ultimately made the area more livable—but at the expense of the people we aimed to uplift.

Confronted with these challenges, our founding members made the difficult yet necessary decision to pause our project, allowing for a period of deep reflection and exploration of new avenues to serve those in need more effectively. During this pause, each of us individually volunteered with various organizations—both locally and internationally—to refine our skills, gain invaluable insights, and engage in meaningful reflection. This experience enabled us to gather fresh perspectives and critically reassess our past approaches, with the goal of unlocking a greater and more lasting impact. It soon became clear that moving forward would require not only a shift in focus but a complete recalibration of our mission.

In 2024, we are reborn under a new name—WTDC—renewed with a deeper commitment and a sharper focus on talent development for underprivileged youth. With over a decade of accumulated expertise in education and a profound understanding of the challenges faced by these communities, we are resolute in our mission to create a lasting, positive impact. Our refined approach emphasizes efficiency, leveraging resources strategically to ensure that the results we achieve are not only immediate but sustainable. As concerns around economic inequality intensify, the urgency of our mission has only grown, driving us to take meaningful action. Our reach has expanded beyond Washington, D.C., now serving the broader areas of Maryland and Virginia, and our resolve is stronger than ever to create lasting change for the youth who need it most.