The Work — Leslie B. James

The Work

Turning local capital intovisible movement.

Churches, families, and communities are often surrounded by good intentions but slowed by fragmentation. These platforms exist to close that gap—turning vision into measurable movement and scattered effort into coordinated transformation.

Local churches and neighborhood partners already carry untapped spiritual, relational, and practical capital.

When that capital is organized well, communities can move from recurring crisis toward durable flourishing.

By the Numbers

700+ students served through Dream Chaser deployments
78% agency & pathways gain across partner programs
80% project completion rate across Dream Chaser cohorts
100% portfolio launches — Reflection Church Orlando cohort
25 proven neighborhood playbooks with real budgets & 90-day plans
60% problem-solving growth in STEM-focused deployment

Four Platforms. One Ecosystem.

Each initiative serves a different layer of the work.

Multiply · multiplymission.org

Discipleship beyond Sunday.

Multiply turns sermon highlights, testimonies, and event videos into branded weekly discipleship flows—structured weekly pathways built around learning, connection, and lived next steps. Its impact framing centers on movement data: the ways members voluntarily surface commitments, share stories, and reveal gifts through actual participation rather than vanity metrics.

So we can see whether discipleship is actually moving people into new practices—not just new content.

SaaS · Churches & Pastors Explore

Dream Chaser Kids · dreamchaserkids.com

Youth formation with visible artifacts.

DCK helps young people discover strengths, launch real projects, and build confidence through portfolio-based learning experiences deployed across schools, churches, and community organizations. Students produce tangible outputs—StoryBuilder portfolios, AI mockups, inventions, and public presentations—making growth visible to families, funders, and schools.

So kids leave with portfolios, confidence, and language for their gifts that schools and families can see.

Youth Dev · Schools & Churches Explore

Community Playbook · communityplaybook.org

Neighborhood engagement with structure.

Community Playbook helps churches move from "we care" to "we can show the next right step." It organizes ZIP-level data, stories, partners, projects, and practical launch plans so that neighborhood ministry is not left to scattered spreadsheets or individual memory. Twenty-five proven playbooks with real budgets, 90-day plans, and case examples from churches and networks.

So churches and partners go from concern to 90-day projects with budgets and real stories.

Platform · Networks & Funders Explore

The Immerse Project · immerseproject.org

Pastoral imagination tied to place.

A 16-month journey combining coaching, monthly gatherings, curriculum, and cultural immersion experiences—travel, lodging, and meals covered—to help pastors align mission with local need. Its role in the ecosystem is strategic: it helps leaders see what is possible, discern what fits their context, and build the courage and clarity to align church mission with neighborhood realities.

Cohort · Pastoral Leaders Explore

Representative Outcomes

Real results from real places.

Growth becomes fundable, scalable, and reproducible when it shows up in student work, community data, and pastor testimony—not just program language.

Multiply

Washington Shores Church of Christ — Orlando, FL

Pastor Trevonte Peterson's multi-generational congregation found the discipleship rhythm they had been building toward—60+ weekly engagements sustained from week one, with members consistently turning Sunday's message into concrete mid-week steps.

60+ weekly engagements · Active from week 1

The Way Community — Roosevelt, NY

Dr. Thomas C. L. Thomas used Multiply to capture congregational voice and build a clear discipleship journey. Members began discovering spiritual gifts, submitting testimonies, and engaging digitally in ways the church had never tracked before.

29 testimonies captured · 46 gifts identified

What the platform makes visible

Multiply shows pastors what landed, where members are moving—home, work, community—and surfaces volunteer leads automatically. No spreadsheets. The average pastor on the Growth plan saves four hours per week.

Avg. 4 hrs/week saved · Weekly movement data

Dream Chaser Kids

Reflection Church — Orlando, FL

12-week Sunday cohort. 20 of 20 students launched live digital portfolios, created AI-supported project mockups, and connected spiritual formation directly to community-facing innovation.

100% portfolio launches

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

12-week deployment across two schools, 35 students. Validated assessment instruments showed a 78% gain in agency and pathways thinking—students moving from "I don't know" to "here's my plan."

78% agency & pathways gain

YMCA of Greater Charlotte

Three campuses. 80%+ project completion held across the full cohort. Enrollment grew 50% semester over semester—students recruiting other students.

80% completion · 50% enrollment growth

TMSA QueenCity STEM — Charlotte, NC

Semester deployment with high-performing students. 60% improvement in problem-solving, alongside measurable gains in entrepreneurship confidence and public speaking—in a STEM context where those skills rarely get formal space.

60% problem-solving growth

Allen Blash Foundation — Spartanburg, SC

United Way-funded pilot workshop. 100% completion. 100% high-confidence ratings. 8 of 8 students left able to name a career connected to their own strengths—after a single session.

8/8 students — strength-to-career connection made

The Ark Academy — Sanford, FL

Early elementary cohort. 100% of participating students created something using AI by program's end. 9 of 10 expressed genuine excitement about AI's role in their future—before most adults have had that conversation with them.

100% AI creation rate · Ages 6–8

The Immerse Project — Cohort 1

"Exposure births clarity. Presence produces conviction. Shared learning increases cohesion."

Meeting Place Church — Charlotte, NC

Pastor Vince Riley entered Immerse with strong mission familiarity but diffuse focus. Community mapping and coaching helped him name a "heartbreak for youth" as a Nehemiah-like moment of calling. By Summer 2025, the church had served 100+ students through the neighborhood summer camp partnership surfaced in their assessment. By January 2026, six youth publicly professed faith in Christ.

100+ students served · 6 youth professions of faith

Galilee Baptist Church — Charlotte, NC

A cultural immersion trip to Washington, DC exposed Pastor Murrah's team to long-term, place-based ministry in housing and senior care. Within months of returning, Galilee cleared 10 acres of land in preparation for future senior housing on and around their campus—a tangible step from concept to commitment.

10 acres cleared · Senior housing initiative launched

The Gathering at Tucson — Tucson, AZ

Reframed its multi-acre campus as a campus of hope—organizing ministry around tables, shared meals, and weekday presence rather than Sunday-only programs. In partnership with GAP Ministries and local agencies, the church now serves hundreds of people each week with food, relational support, and spiritual care. Leaders are now discerning next steps in housing and workforce pathways.

Hundreds served weekly · Relief → long-term discipleship

First United Presbyterian — Athens, TN

A 136-year-old congregation that had reduced to two Sunday services post-pandemic moved from largely inward ministry to a more public neighborhood witness. The church now provides most of the weekly meals at a local housing site, convenes Community Connectors gatherings, and canvasses the neighborhood regularly to listen. Pastor Juanita Lewis went on to catalyze a regional hub gathering—bringing 9 additional Athens pastors into Immerse's orbit through peer invitation.

Weekly meals hosted · 9 pastors catalyzed for Cohort 3

Community Playbook

What the platform is built to produce

Community Playbook is a ZIP-level data and discernment platform designed for churches, neighborhood networks, and place-based leaders—not just churches. It organizes community data, partner maps, project plans, and impact stories into one workflow so local leaders can move from "we care" to "here's the next right step."

The platform's library contains 25 proven playbooks contributed by practitioners across contexts—urban community development, health access initiatives, shared resource networks, and more. Each comes with a real budget, a 90-day launch plan, and case context. Leaders use these as starting points, not blueprints to copy.

25 playbooks in the library · Urban · Suburban · Rural contexts

Network-scale coordination example from the library — 10 churches, one shared mental health partnership strategy

~$3.4M in partnerships modeled

Shared tool library example — 50 congregations accessing the same resources through one coordinated network

50 congregations · Shared infrastructure

For Public Leaders & Funders

Can local institutions produce outcomes visible enough to sustain?

This ecosystem is designed to answer yes—in four ways.

It is local.

Rooted in real congregations, schools, neighborhoods, and partner ecosystems—not abstract theory.

It is measurable.

Outcomes expressed through project completion, agency gains, problem-solving growth, and participation signals—not inspirational language alone.

It is replicable.

Community Playbook and Multiply are built to help leaders repeat and adapt proven patterns rather than starting over each cycle.

It is relational.

Depends on trusted local actors and shared ownership—especially important where top-down interventions fail to stick.

What Partnership Can Look Like

Different partners engage the work differently.

Whether you lead a local church, a regional network, a school, or a foundation—there is a lane designed for your scale and calling.

Pastors & Churches

Extend discipleship. Reclaim time.

Use Multiply to extend discipleship beyond Sunday, Dream Chaser Kids to build youth agency, Community Playbook to organize neighborhood initiatives, or Immerse to develop a long-term local mission strategy.

Start a conversation

Networks & Districts

Align around place.

Use Community Playbook and Immerse to support multiple congregations around place-based transformation—designing data stories that connect churches around shared neighborhood signals.

See the Playbook

Schools & Youth Partners

Build, don't consume.

Use Dream Chaser Kids to improve confidence, agency, and project completion through structured cohorts and student portfolio tools—measurable outcomes, visible artifacts.

Explore DCK

Funders & Public Leaders

Evidence you can invest in.

Partner through pilot support, place-based strategy, youth development, or reporting frameworks—church-neighborhood collaboration models that produce both stories and evidence.

Let's talk

Now Building

Rise

Rise is a church-anchored pilot for economic mobility in Orlando. It brings together the systems behind Multiply, Dream Chaser Kids, Community Playbook, and The Immerse Project to help adults in under-resourced neighborhoods move toward better work, stronger income, and greater family stability.

Through short, high-accountability cohorts hosted by local churches, Rise is testing how trusted relationships, local expertise, and underused space can become real pathways into work, entrepreneurship, and long-term stability.

Explore Rise

Systems converging in Rise

Multiply

Discipleship rhythm for cohort members

Dream Chaser Kids

Youth entrepreneurship running parallel

Community Playbook

Neighborhood data and partner mapping

The Immerse Project

Pastoral formation grounding the model

Rise

Church-anchored economic mobility · Orlando pilot

Next Step

Let's explore what this could look likein your context.

Whether the need is youth development, discipleship beyond Sunday, a neighborhood strategy, or a church-based pilot for community impact—the next step is a conversation about fit, readiness, and what outcomes matter most in your setting.