With the understanding that leaders are trained, not born, and that leadership is an ever-evolving practice, SALDEF has crafted an experiential learning experience for Sikh American youth. Through the SikhLEAD Initiative, SALDEF inspires, trains, and supports a diverse, motivated, and entrepreneurial group of Sikh Americans as they prepare for a lifetime of community engagement and leadership. 

The Leadership Development Program (LDP) is centered on the Sikh faith’s calling for selfless service, a lifetime of giving, and a responsibility in the engagement for racial and social justice advocacy. Each year LDP trains young Sikh women and men  from across the country with the goal to create a national cohort of organizers equipped to address pressing issues in their local communities.

Since its founding in 2010, the Leadership Development Program (LDP) has recruited about 116 young Sikhs from all over the country and helped them chart a new course for their future. This program inspires, trains, and supports a diverse, motivated, and entrepreneurial group of young Sikh leaders as they prepare for a lifetime of community engagement and leadership.

SikhLEADers have gone on to build power and expertise. Our alumni are graduate students at top universities, hold elected positions on their college campuses, have become daring creative minds who sing on American Idol and travel the country to tell the stories of Sikhs in America via Sikh Monologues.

This transformative program creates an atmosphere in which Sikh leaders can use state-of-the-art training methodologies to explore their unique leadership potential and set goals for their future. This Leadership Development program will build upon the experiences, knowledge, and skills of Sikh participants to create leaders committed to expanding youth opportunity, supporting cross-cultural cooperation, and solving public problems. Simultaneously, participants form a cooperative network of young Sikh leaders and forge meaningful bonds.

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“LDP is unique in its power to bring Sikh Americans from across the country together to make tangible difference. It provided me with leadership skills that I could take home with me and apply to any facet of my life, whether it is within my university’s campus or the larger Chicago community. This program is close to my heart because of the meaningful connections I made with the other 17 participants whom I can now call my family.” -Sahiba Kaur Borisuth, LDP 2016