The Inner Development Goals is a rapidly expanding global movement dedicated to bringing a focus on inner development to efforts to confront civic challenges. The initiative is grounded in the understanding that traditional efforts to address public problems by focusing solely on outcomes and metrics have proven to be limited in impact and effectiveness. Those efforts need to be complemented with a new and equally rigorous focus on the inner development of the individuals working to address those challenges.

The Inner Development For Civic Leaders initiative is an effort to pilot a program that brings the insights of this global movement to local government. The program is a partnership between Azure Psychotherapy and the Center For Courageous Wholeness, two organizations with roots in West Harford.

Here’s what you need to know:

Goals:

1. Strengthen the Capacity of Local Leaders to Navigate Complex Civic Challenges
Equip emerging and established leaders in West Hartford with the mindsets, skills, and frameworks needed to address complex community challenges—such as housing, education, economic opportunity, and civic trust—through collaborative and adaptive leadership.

2. Cultivate Service-Oriented Leadership through Inner Development
Engage participants in the work of inner development as described by the Inner Development Goals movement.  Through this work, we connect West Hartford with a rapidly emerging global movement to integrate a dual focus on inner development and civic transformation. 

3. Build Relationships and Trust Across Sectors
Create meaningful connections among participants from different sectors of the community—government, nonprofit, business, education, and civic organizations—strengthening the networks that enable effective collaboration on shared civic challenges.

4. Develop a Shared Framework for Collaborative Community Leadership
Introduce a common language and set of leadership tools that participants can use across organizations and initiatives, helping West Hartford build a culture of thoughtful, collaborative civic leadership.

5. Pilot a Scalable Model for Civic Leadership Development
Use the pilot program to test and refine an approach that could be expanded in the future to reach additional leaders, organizations, and community members in West Hartford and beyond.

Cohort Size

10-15 participants, representing a cross section of the following sectors:

• Local government

• Nonprofit leaders

• Business leaders

• Educators

• Civic volunteers

• Emerging leaders

• Community organizers

The diversity of sectors is essential because many civic challenges require cross-boundary collaboration.

Program Overview
The pilot program includes three in-person sessions; the first is a three-hour program launch, and the other two are two-hour sessions. Here’s an overview:

Session #1: Introduction to Inner Development
The program will begin with a three hour session that begins with community building and then introduces participants to the concepts of adaptive leadership and leading with wholeness.

Session #2: Transforming Shadow
The second session will last for two hours, and will focus on experiencing Accelerated Resolution Therapy, an evidence-based modality for transforming inner challenges through a non-disclosive process.

Session #3: Carrying it Forward
The third and final session will last for two hours, and will focus on helping participants find meaningful ways to carry this learning forward. Participants will encounter the Question Formulation Technique that empowers them to find the most compelling questions evoked by this experience, and will have time to explore the questions generated by group members. We’ll end with completing a final evaluation and a closing ceremony to bring the experience to a meaningful conclusion.

Cost:
$999 per person

About the Hosts
The pilot is designed and implemented by two siblings with deep expertise in the work of civic leadership and inner development, and deep roots in West Hartford.