The Center at a Turning Point

by Terry Chadsey, Co-Director

In the San Juan Islands north of Seattle, there’s a picturesque nineteenth century lighthouse on a high bluff on Stuart Island. On nautical charts this is named “Turn Point” because the shipping lanes that route ships between the Pacific Ocean and Vancouver (one of the world’s largest deep water ports) make a near 90-degree turn off the point. This is an apt metaphor for where we find ourselves today at the Center. In our wake are growth and success beyond anyone’s anticipation. Ahead lies great promise, but in order to continue the journey, we are making a significant turn. I feel a keen sense of both gratitude and humility to be helping to lead the Center through this turn.

Twelve years ago, I was in my twenty-first year as a public school teacher. I’d never heard of Parker Palmer or his work. A colleague handed me a copy of the recently published book, The Courage to Teach, and I eagerly read it over a weekend. Parker’s writing opened for me new ways of thinking about my own teaching and life. My journey with the Center’s work and the growing network of Circle of Trust® facilitators had begun.

Today, I see several factors that have signaled the coming turn.

• The Circle of Trust® work created by Parker J. Palmer and many others has proven to be powerful, timely and growing in demand.
• The network of Circle of Trust facilitators is approaching 200.
• After fifteen years, this is the final year of core operating funding from the Fetzer Institute.
• Founding directors Rick and Marcy Jackson and the Board have initiated a thoughtful process of leadership transition.
• Parker recently turned 70 as his public following and readership has grown to new heights.

The Center’s board and leadership have responded by committing to create a vital and sustainable organization that would ensure that “courage work” will grow and thrive long after the founders are gone.  In the fall of 2008 the board launched the planning process described previously by Marcy.

In March 2009 the Board and executive staff enthusiastically committed to the outcome of that initial planning process. I deeply believe that the resulting strategic direction and emerging business plan will create a vital organization that will proliferate the work while sustaining the Center. It will enable us to do so in ways that are informed by the dynamic of social change movements, that exemplify the Circle of Trust® principles and practices; and that are responsive to changing conditions and contexts.

For me, three elements of the Center’s turn strongly define our future work:

1.    We are shifting our focus from programs (the seasonal retreat series named Courage to Teach and Courage to Lead) to an approach (the Circle of Trust® approach). Over the years we have found this approach shows up powerfully in retreats as well as short workshops, staff meetings, professional development, mentoring and coaching. We are actively claiming, naming and trademarking this as our signature offering. I expect that retreat programs, led by Circle of Trust Facilitators prepared and supported by CCR, will continue to powerfully embody this approach.

2.    We will provide appropriately scaled new opportunities and resources for involvement with the Center at many levels. For those who first read a book or find our website, for those who participate in a retreat series or other national program, for the Courage Collaboration—the growing network of facilitators prepared by CCR—and for those facilitators who partner with CCR to develop and deliver programs, we will seek to deepen connections, relationships, supports, and opportunities.  I know our work will always be grounded in face-to-face experiences while increasingly exploring virtual tools and processes to grow connections across time and space and to engage younger generations.

3.    We will build a stable and sustainable revenue model with programs that exemplify our principles and practices with three “legs.”

First, growing the base of donors who make gifts, large and small to ensure the sustainability and fulfillment of the Center’s mission.

Second, growing program revenues through development and delivery of CCR programs priced to pay for the program and to help sustain the Center. This includes the Gateway Retreat, the Facilitator Preparation Program, Circle of Trust Retreats and new programs. Our work has grown over fifteen years because of the immense generosity of Parker J. Palmer, the Fetzer Institute, Circle of Trust facilitators and hundreds of donors. We have always benefited from an orientation to abundance. Now we blend those assumptions of generosity and abundance with a clear-eyed assessment of what it takes to independently sustain a vital container for the Circle of Trust approach. 

Finally, continuing to engage national funding partners who help both to make our programs broadly accessible and to develop new programs for new groups of participants. To date, the Fetzer Institute, Rainwater Charitable Funds, the Lilly Endowment, the Angell Foundation and others have provided millions of dollars of such support. We will continue to engage such partners.

My imagination turns to 2024, fifteen years into the future. The Circle of Trust approach is widely acknowledged as a critical resource for professional and leadership development across sectors. Strong young voices have emerged and are writing and speaking about the important of tending to inner work as a necessity to contributing to professional and public life. There’s a thriving Web 3.0 community that engages hundreds of thousands in living and working “divided no more.” Circle of Trust retreat programs are widely available to interested participants.  Participants truly reflect the growing diversity of our thriving democracy.

So, with the lighthouse off the port beam, we complete the turn and set a new course, sure of the principles and practices that are affirmed by the experience of hundreds of circles, strengthened by all we’ve learned, carried by the wisdom and support of hundreds of colleagues and friends and eager for the new challenges ahead. I am grateful you are aboard.