Quantum Leap®, NAPO in the Community

NAPO’s community service program, Quantum Leap®, was founded in 2000 on the premise that making an important positive shift in life is difficult—if not impossible—without basic organizing skills. The program provides free organizational skills training to people in life transitions who cannot afford but critically need professional guidance. Classes teach better management of time, paper, and personal finances. NAPO professional organizers volunteer their time to provide Quantum Leap skills training either as individuals or as part of a local chapter initiative.

NAPO believes that making important shifts in one’s life is difficult to impossible without basic organizing skills. For those in life transitions—individuals living in shelters or public housing, the homeless, teenage mothers, victims of natural disasters, and many others—those skills are critical, but are often unaffordable.

The Quantum Leap program consists of volunteer professional organizers who donate their time working with local community nonprofit agencies and offer skill-building organizational sessions on how to manage paper, time and money management. Classes are conducted nationwide in coordination with various local agencies with a partnering Quantum Leap trainer.

Since the inception of the Quantum Leap Task Force, over 8,000 students have been trained by professional organizers through a wide variety of community agencies. They have adapted sample class outlines and materials lists for the specific students they are teaching. Classes have been taught by individual organizers, teams of organizers, and as chapter community service projects.

A sampling of the agencies currently in the Quantum Leap Program:

• Resource Inc.
• Project for Pride in Living
• Minnesota Life College
• Minneapolis Community Action
• Eastside Housing Program

Organizational materials for class participants are donated by NAPO, NAPO chapters, or individual NAPO members. Manufacturers, including Esselte/Pendaflex, and Office Max donate materials such as file folders, hanging folders, durable portable file boxes, and other supplies.