There is no one type of person who can be a Thrive Together Leader! We seek professionals who come from diverse backgrounds and roles across sectors and regions in Maine. Thrive Together Leaders are librarians, public school teachers, social workers, preventionists, nonprofit Directors and CEO’s, public health professionals, advocates, behavioral health specialists, pediatric healthcare providers, afterschool program directors – anyone in a caring role!

Thrive Together Leaders also represent a variety of qualities and strengths and this is what makes our cohort-based learning model so powerful. We seek those who possess a diversity of skills and neurotypes: compassionate caregivers, curious lifelong learners, thoughtful helpers, determined agents of social change, creative problem solvers, bold visionaries, reflective thinkers, intentional decision makers, kinship keepers, and relationship tenders. In fact, a key component of the Thrive Together leadership program is to explore and identify the strengths that come naturally and easily to you as a leader in order to apply them in ways that serve your deepest values and have the greatest impact. Together, we will harness our collective skills as a group in order to become practiced in seeing strengths and cultivating respect and appreciation for the diverse gifts the youth you serve and the teams you support possess.

The one thing that unites all Thrive Together Leaders is a commitment to cultivating caring, thriving communities.

The Thrive Together Leadership Program interprets the word leader expansively. We seek both experienced leaders who oversee organizations and teams as well as those who are emergent – new to their careers and fields. MyT sees real value in bringing these perspectives together to learn from one another’s vantage points and lived experience and to broaden notions of who and how to lead.

We cap the program at 20 participants. This allows our team to provide 1:1 support to each leader and to maintain a cohesive cohort where everyone has ample opportunities to feel seen, heard, valued and vital.

This hybrid program is synchronous and features 2 in-person retreats and 4 virtual sessions.

The in-person retreats include a program launch in October to give leaders an opportunity to feel meaningfully connected to their cohort. At the conclusion of the program in May, we gather again for a final retreat to celebrate our shared learning and give leaders an opportunity to showcase their plan for integrating the program into their communities. We make use of nourishing activities and beautiful settings with opportunities to be outdoors in order to foster collective intention setting and integration. 

During the winter weather months, we meet virtually in the evenings via Zoom. Virtual sessions also include interactive activities that allow you to workshop the material in real time and to problem solve in a supportive community.

The Thrive Together Leadership Program is 6 sessions totaling 20 hours of continuing education. Here is the schedule for 2027.

• January 13, 2027 (4 hours in person virtually)
• February 10, 2027 (3 hours virtually)
• March 10, 2027 (3 hours virtually)
• April 14, 2027 (3 hours virtually)
• May 14, 2027 (3 hours virtually)
• June 4, 2027 (4 hours in person retreat)

As a Thrive Together leader, you can expect individualized support and coaching in an environment where information is intentionally integrated through experiential activities and spaciousness for deeper reflection. You will be encouraged to begin applying your learning right away with real-time opportunities for feedback and mentoring. Best of all, as a cohort-based program, your teachers will also include your fellow learners and leaders who come from diverse areas of expertise from organizations across Maine.

In between the 6 sessions, you can expect 2-3 hours of reading, reflection, and integrating learning into your workplace. We are mindful of how much caring professionals already give of their time and energy so all reading and assignments are chosen intentionally with respect for your capacity. We strive to ensure that materials are accessible and appealing to a wide range of learners.

Youth Resilience & Positive Childhood Experiences

• Name and define 3 protective factors and how they can be used to assess and promote positive health outcomes for youth.
• Understand what Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) are and their relationship to healthy brain development.
• Describe how PCE’s buffer against the negative health impacts of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs.)
• Identify the types of experiences, relationships, and environments that increase positive health outcomes for youth of all ages.

Positive Youth Development

• Name 3-5 of the core qualities of positive youth development.
• Describe the differences between a deficit-based model and an asset-based model and how the latter builds resilience for youth.
• Discuss the latest research findings in positive youth development.
• Identify opportunities to integrate youth voices by meaningfully incorporating their perspectives and lived experiences into organizational decision-making.

Positive Psychology

• Identify the three pillars of positive psychology and how they contribute to human flourishing.
• Define how evidence-based interventions in positive psychology improve well-being for youth and for caregivers.
• Analyze how to integrate foundational elements of the PERMA model into one’s work to promote intergenerational thriving.

Mattering & Community Thriving

• Name the key ingredients of mattering.
• Describe how mattering is different from belonging and builds upon it to achieve stronger health outcomes.
• Understand how mattering functions as a powerful protective factor and tool for building resilient, connected communities and intergenerational thriving.
• Identify mattering strategies that can be easily integrated into one’s work with youth and colleagues.
• Begin applying mattering strategies in one’s community and/or organization. 

Compassion Fatigue & Workforce Sustainability

• Identify how the stress cycle shows up in caregiving and caring professions.
• Define compassion fatigue, name how it differs from burnout, and identify the early signs of both. 
• Develop personal and professional resilience strategies to buffer against the impact of exposure to acute and chronic stress
• Identify strategies for cultivating the conditions of communities of care that protect and mitigate against the effects of compassion fatigue.

Applications for the Winter/Spring 2027 cohort are now open! Registration is on our website and through our communication channels. Please sign up for our newsletter if you have not already! 

The program tuition is $2400. Early bird registration is $2,000 and ends October 30, 2026. A payment plan of four installments due by December 21, 2026 is available as are scholarship opportunities. Please inquire! 

The investment for a staff member to participate in this comprehensive cohort-based program is equivalent to most 90 minute training sessions that are scheduled on staff professional development day and the benefits are far more powerful. Your staff member will receive 20 hours of instruction across MyT’s full suite of offerings that cover timely and relevant research and strategies, 1:1 support from experts in the field, a nurturing community for them to problem solve and resource share, and access to a statewide network of professionals. By investing in your staff member’s learning in the Thrive Together Leadership Program, you not only build their capacity to create stronger relationships and social bonds with the youth and caregivers your organization serves, but to foster their own well-being and resilience, helping them recognize the early signs of compassion fatigue in themselves and others thus reducing their likelihood of turnover. Lastly, Thrive Together Leaders are trained in how to bring the knowledge they learn back to their organizations with a plan to share their skills and resources and help their teams practice mattering and resilience building. MyT knows that all learning is relational. This is why peer-to-peer learning is more impactful than having an outside trainer do a one-and-done workshop and is why the Thrive Together Leadership Program was launched – to build meaningful trusting relationships with professionals so they can make the greatest impact for your team and the communities you serve.