The community leadership accelerator
The 2024 CLA cohort
What is the community Leadership accelerator
The Community Leadership Accelerator (CLA) is a 6-month leadership program for leaders of social change. It is designed to develop diverse leaders who are grounded in their own leadership, can sustain themselves as leaders, value human connection and relationships, and can drive community change.
We live and lead in ever-changing, turbulent, and chaotic times, so it should come as no surprise that the traditional leadership model is no longer fit for purpose.
What we see instead is the need for new ways of being in leadership—for courageous and resilient leaders—for a new leadership model.
A New Way of Leading
Top thought leaders agree that a new skill set is needed for effective leadership in today's rapidly changing environment: adaptability & flexibility, Emotional Intelligence (EQ), resilience & mental toughness, and coaching & developing people. The CLA develops these foundational skills and goes further.
The CLA has been designed to develop a critical set of additional skills for sustainable social change leadership.
CLA Program Details
To get these skills to really stick, the 6-month CLA structure has some unique design elements:
- A diverse cohort of 20-25 social change leaders.
- Opening and closing in-person, 3-day retreats to cement learning and build community.
- 4 virtual workshops to bring new learning (3.5 hours each).
- Peer support through 5-monthly peer group meetings (1.5 hours each).
- Scaffolded experiential assignments to immediately bring new skills to life.
- Flexible program designed to adapt to the cohort in real-time.
- A program that situates itself in a global context and evolves with the changing times
- A Teaching Team of prior graduates to share their learnings, support the learning of others, and assist in the refinement of the program over time.
This unique structure translates to 70 hours of supported learning per participant and 68 hours in community with other cohort members.
CLA Benefits
What this means for participants is a transformational experience. Based on data from prior cohorts, CLA has many organizational, individual, and community benefit.
Where there was burnout, we see a rise in confidence, resilience, empathy and compassion.
JOIN THE CLA 2025 COHORT
Pricing
The pricing structure is inclusive of all CLA materials, as well as room, board, and food (for the opening and closing retreats):
- $6,000: Early bird** for smaller organizations (budget under $5m)
- $7,000: Early bird** for medium organizations (between $5m and $30m)
- $6,500: Regular rate smaller org
- $7,500: Regular rate medium org
- $9,500: Regular rate large org (budget over $30 million)
* All rates represent the shared room rate. The cost for single rooms is an additional $350. Single rooms are limited and subject to availability (first come first served).
**Early bird rates apply until January 31.
Scholarships may be available and can be requested when you sign up.
How to participate
The new CLA cohort launches in April of 2025. There are two ways for social change leaders to participate:
1. As part of an organizational, coalition, or network cohort (within the greater CLA
cohort).
2. As an individual
Sign up for an optional Information Session
To register for an optional Information Sessions (1/23 or 1/28 at 9:00 AM) click here.