Are you looking to cultivate healthy and impactful organizations within your community?
Organizations dedicated to Christian Community Development share a common goal of wanting to see our communities flourish. At CCDA, we’re here to support and enhance that vision.
Join us for our “Strengthening Your Organization” series, designed to equip you with the tools and knowledge needed to foster a healthy and relevant organization. This series is tailored to educate and equip leaders with the latest in organizational development practices. We provide valuable insights, practical tools, and a supportive community to help your church, non-profit, or for-profit organization reach its fullest potential.
Together, let’s see our communities flourish.
2025 Strengthening Your Organization Sponsor
Thank you to our 2025 Strengthening Your Organization sponsor, World Impact! Click here to learn more about World Impact.
Check out the Series
Schedule
Click on a class to learn more and register.
Coming
Soon
June 4, 2025 | 1 pm ET
Renewed for the Journey: Planning, Experiencing, and Re-entry of a Sabbatical
June 11, 2025 | 1 pm ET
Strategic Planning for Transformative Engagement: A Roadmap for Sustainable Community Impact
July 23, 2025 | 1 pm ET
Meet the Speakers
Jena Kitchen
Jena Kitchen is the founder of Radiate Social Impact, a consulting firm that partners with social impact organizations and their leaders through strategic change initiatives such as executive transitions or strategic planning, as well as leadership program design. Adept at facilitating within complex conflict dynamics, she brings her experience in peacebuilding and a systems change perspective to guide leaders and their boards to identify action steps to improve their organizational functioning and staff wellbeing amidst burnout.
Leo Hylton
Leo Hylton is a Restorative Justice & Leadership Consultant with Radiate Social Impact, where he helps organizational leaders build deeper trust, accountability, and community within their teams and trains them to design and implement conflict transformation pathways from a restorative justice ethos. He is a PhD student at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, leading healing-centered research at the Mary Hoch Center for Reconciliation. Leo is currently incarcerated in Maine State Prison. His education and work are based in trauma-informed, healing-centered Restorative Justice (RJ) practices, with a vision toward an abolitionist future.
Michelle Ferrigno Warren, MPA
Michelle Ferrigno Warren is the President of Virago Strategies, a consulting group which provides strategic engagement and project management support for churches and non-profits stepping more deeply into the work of public justice. She has been working in Christian community development for over 30 years utilizing her skills as an educator, worship leader, non-profit manager, public policy specialist & faith-rooted organizer & activist. She is an adjunct professor at Denver Seminary and a Senior Fellow with The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute. She is a fierce advocate for justice and has shared much of her journey toward civic engagement and activism in her books, The Power of Proximity, Moving Beyond Awareness to Action, IVP 2017, and Join the Resistance, Step Into the Good Work of Kingdom Justice, IVP, 2022.
Sonja Schappert Howden
Sonja Schappert Howden has 20 years of experience in faith-based, urban ministry. She studied Christian Education & Intercultural Studies at Biola University & Nonprofit Administration at the University of San Francisco. Her formative years were in African American and Asian ministries. Greatly influenced by CCDA, she lived in South Central for years practicing relocation and reconciliation. Sonja is a former small business owner and now serves as the Director of Operations at Because Justice Matters. She is a seasoned traveler, purplekayakgirl, and “Aunty Awesome” to her nieces and nephews. Sonja runs Rooted.to, a consultancy committed to the ministry of Operations.
Chanda Epps
Chanda J. Epps is a passionate advocate for family and community engagement, leadership development, and creative empowerment. As the founder of Chanda J. Epps Consulting, LLC, she partners with schools, districts, and organizations to cultivate culturally responsive and sustainable engagement practices that center community voice and foster meaningful connection.
Learn more at chandajepps.com.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
How do I register for classes?
Click on a class to register or visit ccda.org/events for our current series offerings. Classes are discounted for CCDA Members – grab your discount and become a CCDA Member today!
Bundle registrations are open through Monday, June 2, 2025, and individual class registrations are open through July 30, 2025. Classes will be recorded and available the following week in the CCDA Store.
What is included in this series?
- 1.5-hour sessions for deeper learning and engagement
- Opportunity to learn and engage directly with the speaker during each session and ask questions specific to your situation
- Speaker resources from class are provided via email following each class
Who is this professional development course for?
Anyone looking to strengthen their ministry, organization, or community through a Christian Community Development specific context.
More Ways to Engage
-
Purpose-Driven Programs: Embracing Change and Innovation to Design Programs for Maximum Impact -
Transformational Relationships: Reframing Organizational Impact, Part 2 -
Transformational Relationships: Reframing Organizational Impact – Part 1 -
Everybody is a Leader: A System of Staff Development -
Transformative Leadership: Creating a Culture that Changes You and Others -
Forming a New Nonprofit Ministry -
Dignified Storytelling -
Building The Sustainable Organization
Not a member? Join the CCDA Family
Membership has always been a way for us to accomplish our mission and vision. We want you to succeed in your work, so we created a structure that will sustain our work of strengthening individuals and organizations just like you. We are constantly striving to update and scale the resources available to our members so that you have the tools you need to complete the good work to which God has called you.
