The Courage & Renewal Facilitator Preparation Program is an 18-month leadership and apprenticeship program for carefully preparing and equipping facilitators to lead Circle of Trust® retreats and other programs rooted in the Courage & Renewal® approach.
Those eligible to apply for the Facilitator Preparation Program will 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.
Program Structure and Content
The Program consists of four components :
- A 5-day/4-night retreat
- Monthly online learning sessions
- An 18-month apprenticeship with an experienced Courage & Renewal facilitator
- 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.
- 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
