Leading Systems Change: Cohort Experiences
WithIn Collaborative offers customized cohort programs that empower leaders to drive meaningful change within their communities and organizations. Over the years, we’ve designed and facilitated 11 leadership cohorts to tackle community challenges in our home state of California.
Our cohort experiences foster deep relationships rooted in trust and shared purpose. This connection creates the foundation for collaborative learning, human-centered strategy, and innovative design work to tackle complex challenges in our communities.
Strengthen Community Leadership
WithIn stewards place-based and issue-based networks and organizations committed to working across differences to transform their communities. Through distinct cohorts, WithIn Collaborative cultivates networks of next generation leaders committed to creating a more just and joyful future.
The cohort experience blends systems thinking, human-centered design, equity frameworks, and coaching—equipping leaders with tools to launch meaningful, community-rooted work.
Throughout the program, participants co-design and test solutions to real challenges. Many of these projects take root beyond the cohort, creating lasting impact. Just as importantly, the cohort itself often evolves into a sustained network of support, learning, and collaboration well beyond the program’s end.
Connection is WithIn’s superpower. They create a sense of togetherness even when working with really tender topics around race, privilege and power in integrated settings and — because of that — they transform challenging, growth-edge conversations into compelling invitations that people are excited to lean into.
WithIn’s Cohort-Based Approach
WithIn has designed and facilitated 11 leadership cohorts to tackle community challenges in our home state of California. While each leadership cohort is unique, WithIn typically brings together 15–18 leaders for an intensive, months-long experience both in-person and online focused on trust-building, collaborative leadership and project work.
We’ve been honored to support networks such as:
- Irvine New Leadership Network (NLN). Based in California’s Central Valley, NLN is a multiracial, cross-sector network cultivating a new generation of leaders to reimagine and reshape local systems. Read more about NLN’s journey in our book.
- First 5 Napa Early Childhood Network.This network brings together leaders from diverse fields, faiths, political beliefs, and racial backgrounds to co-create a more inclusive future for Napa County’s children and families.
