CLA 2026

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 hybrid 3-day retreats.
4 virtual workshops (3.5 hours each).
5-monthly peer group meetings (1.5 hours each).
2 individual coaching sessions (one of which is an EQ assessment).
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.
Access to an Alum Network.

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 2026 COHORT

Dates and timeline

Pricing

Option 1: In-person (attending the opening and closing retreats in-person): This price is inclusive of all CLA materials, as well as room, board, and food (for the opening and closing retreats. It does not include travel):

$5,500: for smaller organizations (budget under $5m)
$6,500: for medium organizations (budget between $5m and $30m)
$8,000: for large organizations (budget over $30 million)

Option 2: Virtual (attending the opening and closing retreats virtually): This price is inclusive of all CLA materials:

$4,000: for smaller organizations (budget under $5m)
$5,000: for medium organizations (budget between $5m and $30m)
$6,500: for large organizations (budget over $30 million)

What people have been saying about CLA:

“It is easy to feel isolated in this work. The CLA brought together a mix of organizations and professionals that was inspiring and energizing. I learned many new concepts. It was helpful to have the time to build my leadership and interact with others as we helped each other apply new ways. I have been able to reflect on my life and the contexts in which I have been called to lead. I have experienced more joy in the program than I’ve felt for a while and felt healing, too.”

“Without really knowing what I was getting into, I got folded into a cohort of people authentically representing themselves in different cultures, workplaces, stages of life, professional backgrounds, and perspectives. Bryn and Sarah nurtured us all through 1:1 coaching, check-ins throughout the year, and expert practices that are still accessible to nonexperts. They are not creating better managers and directors - they are creating collaborators, change-makers, optimistic engineers and high-performing community leaders.”

“I would highly recommend this program to others who are looking for tools to help them on their path of becoming leaders as well as refresher for those in leadership positions. This program is valuable in that it teaches you to look introspectively at yourself in order to see what strengths and potential weaknesses you possess that can have a bearing on your effectiveness as a leader, while simultaneously offering tools and strategies that can help to support these qualities.”