Core Fellows Program

Core Program Fellows are selected each year, drawing from the arts, nonprofits, corporations, government and politics, media, education, the professions, philanthropy and religion. The eighteen-day program includes a six-day wilderness experience in the mountains, during which extremely powerful bonds are forged. In the local area, monthly sessions are held on such topics as dialogue, group emotional intelligence, appreciative inquiry, consensus building, and ethics.

Each class of Fellows also implements a leadership initiative of the group's choosing. Whether or not the projects themselves create impact in the community, they provide a tremendous learning experience about the nature of community leadership, as well as the challenges and rewards of collaboration.

New coalitions are created to build a more effective community from diverse segments. Deep connections are made across all kinds of lines, inspiring leaders to a lifetime of active public engagement.

Characterized by its focus on the human capacity for collective intelligence, the ALF program begins a process of uncovering the principles of a different kind of leadership. When people who represent high achievement in different spheres of influence come together to learn and think, their creative and problem-solving power as a group can lead to highly effective coordinated action.

Program graduates, Senior Fellows, are empowered to serve as catalysts in their communities, bringing stakeholders from other sectors together to collaboratively address the most urgent public concerns. In ALF Founder Joseph Jaworski's words, Senior Fellows are thus able to "break legislative and bureaucratic gridlock and get things done."