CRLN brings together a diverse cross-sector cohort of professionals for an immersive experiential program committed to building the leadership capacity of Los Angeles County’s climate policy, advocacy and community-based change makers.  Focused on building your leadership skills, systems-based knowledge, and issue-centered networks, the program exposes you to cross-sectoral and intersectional perspectives on climate issues and policy, community and issues advocacy, environmental justice, and land conservation and transformation. 

Drawing from practices of regenerative and place-sourced solutions, CRLN enables participants to deepen their understanding of the innate potential that lies within the natural and human living systems of Los Angeles Basin and build a toolkit to disrupt systems and structures to foster a more climate resilient future. 

Program Components

Across 80 hours of professional development training, the program will meet February to June for the Opening Retreat and Leadership Forums, followed by a Closing Symposium in September. The Program is broken into four structural components, each targeted on accelerating systemic shifts towards climate resilience.

• Opening Retreat – Mandatory multi-day, off-site weekend retreat laying key skills-building and cohort-building foundations.

• Leadership Forums – Uniquely-tailored, facilitated professional and personal leadership development skill-building sessions. These are hands-on, highly-collaborative, and experiential, with learning contextualized through impact-based case studies, and geared towards evolving your knowledge and capacity for change leadership.

• Cohort Project – Cohort-curated and -led exploration of a challenge facing the Los Angeles region to stretch your professional and leadership development in a real-time setting to leverage the diverse cross-sectoral peer learning environment and lean into impact.

• Closing Symposium – A mandatory post-program forum for facilitated reflection and cohort support after a period of real-world, practical and theoretical application of learning.

Curricular Components

• Adaptive Leadership & Systems Thinking
• Coalition Building & Community Engagement
• Effective Communication, Storytelling, and Advocacy
• Effective Inquiry and Critical Thinking
• Equity, Inclusion, Belonging
• Group Dynamics
• Living Infrastructure Concepts
• Los Angeles. as a Living System
• Negotiations and Managing Conflict
• Place-Sourced Practices
• Public Narrative Frameworks 
• Regenerative Approaches
• Stakeholder and Power Analysis
• Self-Awareness and Self-Management Tools

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Coro values the representation of diverse perspectives, identities, experiences, and world views; as such, CRLN cohorts reflect the make-up of the region, representing a wide array of backgrounds, beliefs, and identities.

Ideal CRLN candidates…

• work, live, and/or serve communities in Los Angeles County

• have direct experience in living infrastructure practices and advocacy, climate change action, environmental protection and justice, energy, community development, water solutions, land management and conservation, and/or other related fields

• have a demonstrated passion for or commitment to creating innovative solutions to building a climate resilient Los Angeles

• hold an interest in environmental infrastructure, climate resilience, and environmental justice challenges

• view climate change and environmental protection as a cross-sectoral challenge, requiring multi-sectoral communication and collaboration to sustainably make an impact and have the mindset needed to engage in transformational work

• have the support they need from their organizations and/or capacity to fully commit to program sessions and group assignments

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Multi-Perspective

You should be ready to engage productively with different paradigms and perspectives, ready to participate in personal reflection, and be willing to evaluate and reconsider your worldview given new information. Come prepared to explore new ways to contribute to the larger whole or create more value in your work.

Embracing Ambiguity

A signature characteristic of Coro programming is intentionally using ambiguity as a way to highlight your leadership defaults, ignite your learning, and support you to lead and manage through uncertainty.

Learn by Doing

Coro views leadership as a practice; you should be ready to learn by doing with sessions as opportunities to lay the foundation; you will gain the most by taking the skills, tools, and frameworks and practicing/adapting them in your professional roles.

Vulnerability and Psychological Safety

Coro views vulnerability as a critical leadership attribute essential for unleashing learning, building authentic and meaningful connection, and for holding spaces that are psychologically safe. Coro believes psychological safety is a precursor to adaptive, innovative collaboration. You should be ready to contribute to building a psychological safe cohort environment by engaging, modeling vulnerability, seeking perspectives different than your own, sharing and receiving feedback, and contributing to a culture of gratitude and generosity.

As a leadership and professional development institute, Coro’s program goals, including CRLN, aim to expand the leadership and professional capacity of our program participants in order for them to have the networks, skills, and knowledge, supporting them as they drive impact in their work and communities. 

CRLN is…

• A place to explore, experience, and appreciate a diversity of paradigms, experiences, and viewpoints, and engage in productive conflict and discourse.

• A place to identify personal professional strengths and areas for growth and practice skills building.

• A space to build a collaborative network of peers eager to work together – both during the program and afterward – to better understand how to address this crisis and expand your toolkit of frameworks to enhance your capacity to do so.

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Career Benefits

The program creates opportunities for you to bring your professional work and passion into the program.

• Visualizing What is Possible – To help envision what urban regeneration is in a place-based setting, you will have the opportunity to utilize a Living Infrastructure Field Kit to understand: impacts and trade-offs from various approaches, as well as new pathways to get meaningful community-based input and engagement.

• Peer Consultancy – The peer consultancy model enables you to bring into the program a real-world professional challenge you are seeking to address and to seek peer coaching from your cohort.

• Exploring Tough Interpretations – An adaptive leadership module that builds on Coro’s effective inquiry, giving and receiving feedback, and effective communication tools to illuminate your resistance to change.

• Impact Project – As a cohort-led component of the program, the Impact Project provides you with an opportunity to expand your knowledge of the challenges the region faces related to the issues of climate resilience, while also engaging in thought-partnership with other cohort participants and external stakeholders on how to move forward.

Program Cost

Tuition is $250 (subsidized from $9,500 thanks to the generous support of our sponsors). Participants may incur additional incidental expenses such as transportation and parking costs.

Participant Stipends

Thanks to the generous support of ARLA, Coro is able to offer a limited number of need-based stipends up to $1,000 per participant to offset expenses related to their participation, such as transportation and child care. Applicants seeking a stipend must complete the relevant questions at the time of application. 

Employer Assistance

Many participants secure financial support from their employers to cover the program fee. We encourage you to speak with your employer about potential support utilizing the Program Benefits Guide to guide your conversation.

Our 75-year history gives us one of the most diverse alumni networks in the country — 15,000 graduates and growing — spanning sectors, perspectives, and geography. At Coro, the learning doesn’t stop when your program ends. Coro alumni status gives you access to:

• The Resources – Coro alumni have access to AlumniFire, Coro’s Job Board (Coro Classifieds), & Coro’s alumni-only LinkedIn page, where they can network, find job opportunities, fill roles at their organizations, and learn from one another.

• The Exposure – Coro brings together decision makers across sectors to share perspectives and discuss the future of our region at a number of annual events, many of which are exclusive to Coro alumni. Joining the Coro network ensures that partners stay connected with forward-thinking leaders at all levels and across all sectors, and provides you exposure to key decision makers.

• The Credentials – Coro has partnered with Credly by Pearson™ to issue and maintain digital badges. As authenticated, certified, and individually-awarded badges, you’ll be able to showcase your unique professional, management, and leadership development capacity-building in real-time with colleagues, current and future employers, and your network.

• The Network – Alumni have powerful networks to ignite change and continuous support for tackling professional challenges through their Coro family. Program participants directly engage with numerous leaders over the duration of their experience. This, coupled with the over 15,000 Coro alumni, creates a unique opportunity for alumni to quickly expand their social capital.