with a 45-hour course for three undergraduate credits or three graduate credits currently offered through Eastern CT State University. Classes are held in the evenings and on Saturdays, at a time and place convenient to participants. The curriculum consists of three parts:

• Coming to awareness;
• Engaging in inquiry and analysis and
• Taking action.

Participants are encouraged to share their own experiences, to examine them in broader contexts, to enhance the skills they possess, to learn new ones, and to use them to exercise leadership skills and advocacy. A key feature of the LEAP course is that trainees, working in small groups, design an action plan for the implementation of projects that benefit their community.

Those completing the course form a network to continue using their leadership skills and to continue to have new learning opportunities.

LatinoLEAP:   The Collaborative implemented LatinoLEAP, a new component of ConnLEAP offering a bilingual undergraduate and graduate course to help the Latino community build leadership and language and advocacy skills for quality child care.  The first LatinoLEAP course was offered in September 2005.