Programs for everyone

Seasonal and vocational retreats – These retreats are designed to provide a space for personal and professional renewal away from the demands of everyday life, using the Circle of Trust® approach.  Originally held in-person at retreat centers, they are taking various forms online, but all include small group conversations, journaling, and reflecting on poetry and prose taken from diverse wisdom traditions. 

Peer Learning Circles - These are groups of four or five that gather on monthly calls that last about two hours each.  Each person has the opportunity to share an issue and to receive support from their peers in that learning circle about that issue.  When initiated, each PLC must include a Courage & Renewal facilitator.

Clearness Committees - One of the hallmark practices of the Circle of Trust® approach is the Clearness Committee, a two-hour discernment process that happens in many Courage & Renewal retreats but can also be scheduled separately.  It is a process that helps us hear our own inner wisdom and the value of asking and hearing open, honest questions.  Prior preparation of the focus person and committee members by a trained facilitator is essential. 

Programs for elders

The Soul of Aging - A four-day institute for those who have experienced one or more Courage & Renewal programs and want to lead a small group, based on the Circle of Trust approach, in their congregation or community that addresses the spiritual dimensions of aging.

Journeying in the Autumn of Life - This Circle of Trust® retreat offers an opportunity to reflect in solitude and in community on the great questions we face in the autumn of life.  The retreat will include time and space for individuals and small groups, poems and stories, journaling, art, music, silence and dialogue as we reflect on the connection between the personal and professional identities of our past and our future.     

Programs for educators

Courage to Teach® - In a time when stress and pressure on teachers and administrators continue to rise because of internal and external demands, Courage to Teach® provides educators with an opportunity for rest, renewal and re-engagement with their identity and integrity as teachers.  It offers educators an opportunity to reflect on the inner dimensions of teaching and leading.  Participants engage in honest self-reflection and explore questions about purpose, values, and commitment to their challenging work.  In doing so, they increase their capacity to listen to self and others more deeply.

Programs for clergy and spiritual leaders

A Geography of Grace – A program of spiritual formation through discovery of the landscapes of the soul for those interested in offering a small group ministry in their local community.  

The Courage to Lead for Spiritual Leaders – The church today exists as a counter-cultural institution. Leading from within meets this moment in time with quiet, courageous and purposeful leadership. 

Clergy Soul Care – Peers meet monthly to befriend and support one another using the Circle of Trust® process.

Conversation With Your Life – A bi-vocational Circle of Trust® experience to find and explore the inner life for those who consider themselves “spiritual” but not religious.

Souls on Deck is a multi-year initiative for CCR facilitators from diverse faith communities and cultures leading programs in the spirituality/religion sector in a variety of capacities. This project focuses on creative community building, activating an ongoing community of practice, best practice sharing, idea generation and exploring important questions in our Circle of Trust work with regard to spiritual and religious communities and leaders.

This gathering is part of a longer commitment in which participants are participating in smaller ongoing communities of practice that meet monthly for 2-2.5 hours, and a seasonal virtual half-day gatherings for the entire cohort.

Ongoing Program: July 21, 2023 - December 31, 2024.

Programs sponsored by the Center for Courage & Renewal

The Foundations of the Courage & Renewal Approach is open to anyone with an interest in the Courage & Renewal approach and serves as a prerequisite for the Courage & Renewal Practicum and the Courage & Renewal Facilitator Preparation Program. In this five-session online program, learn how the values, principles, and practices of the Courage & Renewal® approach, taken together, create trustworthy spaces to explore questions of meaning, purpose, and how to live authentically with integrity and courage.

The program fee is $250. Each course is capped at 32 participants. For more information, visit the Center for Courage & Renewal's website at: https://couragerenewal.org/foundations-of-the-courage-renewal-approach/

2024 Offerings:

• Thursdays, 3pm - 5pm EDT from August 8th through September 5th

• Tuesdays, 3pm - 5pm EDT from September 19th through October 8th

• Tuesdays, 6pm - 8pm EST from November 12th through December 10th

The Courage & Renewal Practicum builds on knowledge gained in the Foundations program, inviting you to deepen your engagement with the Courage & Renewal approach and integrate these ways of being more fully in your life and relationships. Alongside a supportive learning community, you’ll gain knowledge and insights on how to bring these ways of being and perceiving more fully into your life, expanding your capacity to influence and transform the communities and institutions you care about.

Through our deeper engagement with the core values, principles and practices in the Practicum, we kindle our ongoing formation and commitment to live as fully as possible out of our own identity and integrity in the many different aspects of our lives, while honoring the same in others.

The Courage & Renewal Practicum is a 3-month program that includes a retreat, small online group sessions called peer learning circles, and an online capstone gathering.

During a 4-day retreat you are invited to take a deeper dive into the Courage & Renewal approach through a focused exploration of its concepts and practices and how they interface with your life and work. How might you use the Courage & Renewal approach as a lens through which you view the world and your life in it? How might the practices and values of Courage & Renewal meaningfully impact your relationships, communities, and/or workplaces? Together during the retreat we will delve into questions and insights about:

• Strengthening the connection between our inner and outer lives

• Developing deep listening practices that enable connection with our inner teacher and help us support others in seeking their own clarity

• Recognizing the value and honing the skills of using open, honest questions

• Exploring different modes of reflection that invite new insights

• Living the Courage & Renewal approach as a path towards life-giving liberation, and alternative to cultures of oppression and violence.

• Integrating these practical tools and ways of being that cultivate trustworthy relationships and acknowledge others’ identity and integrity in ways that support their wholeness.

Upon completion of the Practicum retreat, participants will participate in an online Peer Learning Circle facilitated by a member of the leadership team. Peer Learning Circles provide a community of practice to support participants in their on-going learning goals. PLCs allow you to think and reflect more deeply about what it’s been like to bring Courage & Renewal practices and values into your personal and/or professional life. PLCs offer space and time to dig into the practicality of what we focused on during the retreat. Participants can expect to participate in 2-3 PLC gatherings in the couple of months following the retreat.

The Practicum program concludes with an online Closing Gathering in which all of the participants come back together for a final 3-hour session to explore additional concepts and share learnings and insights about what they’re carrying with them moving forward. Practicum participants will also be invited to join the Practitioner Learning Community – a community of practice for Practicum alumni who wish to continue supporting one another in further learning and growth.

Program Prerequisites

• Completion of the Foundations of the Courage & Renewal Approach Program

• Recommended, but not required: Previous participation in a Circle of Trust® retreat or other Courage & Renewal Facilitator-led program

• Required Reading: A Hidden Wholeness by Parker J. Palmer

2024 Offering:

Onsite from July 21 through October 13

For more information, contact the Center for Courage & Renewal at: https://couragerenewal.org/courage-renewal-practicum/

The Courage & Renewal Facilitator Preparation Program is open to those who have completed two essential prerequisites: Foundations of the Courage & Renewal Approach and the Courage & Renewal Practicum. Courage & Renewal Facilitators have unique capacities and skills, and are passionate about bringing this approach into the world by creating independently led retreats that offer trustworthy space for people to engage their own deep wisdom in a community of shared exploration.

Once prepared, facilitators find ways to create institutional and/or community partnerships from which to “grow” this work (i.e. they do not “work” for CCR). Thus, being a Courage & Renewal facilitator combines leadership and facilitation with responsibility for program development in the facilitator’s community or profession. Once an individual successfully completes the Facilitator Preparation Program they also join other Courage & Renewal facilitators around the U.S., Central America, Canada, Australasia, Europe, and South Africa in a network called the Courage & Renewal Facilitator Collaboration. The Collaboration is a resource and leadership-rich community of learning and practice which supports facilitators on-going growth and formation.

The Program consists of four components :

1. A 5-day/4-night retreat

2. Monthly online learning sessions

3. An 18-month apprenticeship with an experienced Courage & Renewal facilitator

4. Online peer learning calls with other cohort members

Content in the retreat and online sessions will include an exploration of:

• Mobius Strip of Facilitation

• Teaching and practicing the Touchstones in a Circle of Trust

• Teaching, supporting, and debriefing the Clearness Committee discernment process in a retreat

• Teaching and practicing deep listening and open and honest questions

• Creating reflective questions

• Co-creating and maintaining trustworthy space

• Facilitating when the going gets rough

• Dialogic teaching of “third things”

• Frequent themes explored through the Courage & Renewal approach

• Process arc and session design

• Program development, including marketing Courage & Renewal programs

During the apprenticeship, cohort members will be paired with an experienced Courage & Renewal mentor, create a learning plan, work on one of the mentor’s programs, and then design, market, and facilitate their own program. Throughout the apprenticeship, cohort members will participate in Peer Learning Calls to support each other in the final steps of their preparation.

Upon successful completion of the steps above and on the mentor’s recommendation, participants will be invited to join the Facilitator Collaboration as an active learning community participant where they’ll receive further support in a community of facilitators who are bringing the Courage & Renewal® approach in the world through retreats and programs in their communities and workplaces.

Program Prerequisites

• Previous participation in a Circle of Trust® retreat or other Courage & Renewal Facilitator-led program that includes the clearness committee process

• Completion of both the Foundations and Practicum Programs

• Demonstrated experience in group facilitation and/or retreat leadership

• Demonstrated capacity to establish and offer Courage & Renewal programs within their networks and communities

For more information, contact the Center for Courage & Renewal at: https://couragerenewal.org/facilitator-preparation-program/