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Want to learn about the Courage to Lead experience?  Watch this five minute video, and hear directly from some of our participants.



So, what is Courage to Lead?

Courage To Lead® for Nonprofit Leaders is a program for the personal and professional renewal of Executive Directors and other top-level nonprofit leaders.  Developed by Parker J. Palmer, Ph.D. and the Center for Courage & Renewal, the Courage to Lead retreat series model focuses neither on technique, nor on society's needs, but on renewing the inner lives of leaders.

Our year-long program provides nonprofit executives with opportunities, individually and in community, for personal and professional insight and growth. It gives them time to:
  • reflect and re-charge
  • focus on their own pressing work and life questions
  • support each other’s personal and professional development
  • celebrate their gifts and acknowledge their limitations
  • practice deep listening
  • attend to their own self-care, and how to sustain their commitment, and
  • find the courage to live in congruence with their values and to help their communities do the same

What happens at a Courage to Lead retreat?  In large group, small group, and solitary settings, we make use of personal stories, reflections on leadership practice, and insights from poets, storytellers, and various wisdom traditions. Often we focus on a seasonal theme, using the rich metaphors of the natural world to explore vocational and life questions.  Over time, a deep trusted community of peers is created, and each participant has focused time and space to make progress on core questions they are holding about their life and work.

A Courage to Lead retreat series consists of quarterly two-day retreats over a thirteen month period, and monthly two-hour small group Leader Circles in between.  Our next seasonal retreat series for nonprofit leaders runs from November 2011 to November 2012.

When nonprofit leaders have completed a year-long retreat series, they graduate into our CTL Alumni Network - with continued opportunities for peer community, retreat and renewal, and resource sharing.  Forty-one nonprofit executive leaders have completed our program to date, and the great majority of them continue to engage actively as part of the growing Courage to Lead alumni community.  You can see a listing of our program alumni at this link.