Founded in 1974 as a response to the cultural upheavals of the time, ICL's early, visionary leaders were committed to building sustainable leaders through innovative outdoor adventure based programming and holistic organizational development methods. A $50,000 grant from The George Gund Foundation helped establish ICL as a nonprofit in its early years.

Over 35 years into its progress, ICL has pioneered and advanced the concept of experiential leadership development to the point where it is now a mainstream learning tool for leadership, team development, and diversity/cultural competence in the northeast Ohio community.

ICL has a high degree of credibility in working across all sectors including civic engagement leadership programs, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions and businesses. More than 75,000 persons from over 500 institutions have benefited from ICL's unique programming, techniques, and facilitation.
ICL has built a robust professional organization capable of making a notable difference in the quality of leadership in our community. This may be credited to the compelling value of our core mission, dedicated board and staff leadership, roots in innovation, and quality service provision.

In addition, ICL's success has been supported by consistently high client feedback, collaborative networking and resourcing, the capacity to engage diverse clientele and service constituencies, and responsiveness to the growing needs for training aimed at the community building process and shared leadership.