About the Center for Courage & Renewal

Good work is done with heart as well as knowledge and skill, done with a depth of commitment that brings integrity and courage to the workplace. But workplace culture can make it risky to reveal our hearts. So we hide them – and sometimes lose them. By supporting teachers, medical professionals, clergy and others who want to reclaim their hearts, we bring new life to them, their work, and the people they serve.

Parker J. Palmer

The mission of the Center for Courage & Renewal (CCR) is to nurture personal and professional integrity and the courage to act on it.

We do this by:

  • Helping people who wish to live and work more wholeheartedly renew themselves, reclaim their vocational vitality, and deepen their professional practice.
  • Supporting these people in becoming forces for positive change in their workplaces, professions, and communities, as well as in the lives of the people they serve.
  • Contributing to the growing national conversation about reclaiming integrity and courage in professional and public life.

The Center helps foster personal and professional renewal through supporting retreats that offer the time and space to slow down and reflect on life and work. These retreats – based in the Circle of Trust® approach -- are often called Courage to Teach® or Courage to Lead® and are led by skilled facilitators and make use of poetry and stories, solitude, reflection, and deep listening.

In addition to offering Circle of Trust retreats nationally, we prepare Courage & Renewal Facilitators through our Facilitator Preparation Program who offer Courage to Teach and Courage to Lead retreats in their local communities. In some parts of the country, groups of Courage & Renewal Facilitators have created affiliate organizations that support retreat offerings.

The Center for Courage & Renewal is a 501 (c)(3) educational nonprofit organization. We accept charitable donations to further our work.

Center for Courage & Renewal admits students of any race, color, sexual orientation, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to its students. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual orientation, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and other school administered programs.