Child- and family-serving programs in community-based settings wield tremendous power for improving the lives of infants and toddlers. In this article, three authors, from Ohio, Montana, and Sierra Leone, describe the principles of adaptive leadership and will share their real-world applications. Their stories explore critical questions for leading communitybased organizations: How do leaders of community-based efforts build leadership among families and other program participants? How do they incorporate equity, diversity, and social justice into both their programs and their process? How do they extend their influence and impact beyond the local? And, perhaps most important, how do they sustain themselves amid competing pressures and priorities?