What we are about and what we do:

Coro is proud of its rich tradition of preparing individuals to be engaged, responsible citizens and effective civic leaders by providing rigorous hands-on leadership skill training. Graduates of all Coro programs are making significant and positive impacts in the St. Louis region and beyond by applying the skills and techniques they learned in their Coro training.

Our goal – today and in the future – is to focus on what we do well: Investing in training as many citizens as we can with Coro’s unique, high-quality, experiential leadership training.  Coro - St. Louis has implemented a business model for managing and expanding our programs. To accomplish our objectives, we are building a diversified series of earned income streams. Coro has, is and will continue to bring positive benefits to the region through its training.

History of Coro in St. Louis:

Coro’s founders – W. Donald Fletcher, a Stanford University Law School graduate, and Van Duyn Dodge, an investment counselor – discovered a shared passion for building increased civic engagement and stimulating a level of citizen participation and emotion needed to develop effective civic leaders in their community and across the United States. Mr. Dodge was a student of General Semantics, which quickly became the foundation of Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Dodge’s study of the processes of citizenship and governance in the United States (and specifically in San Francisco) and led to the creation of Coro. They selected the Coro name only because it had no connotations to confuse the public and because it had an appealing sound.

The first Coro Internship in Public Affairs class consisted of 11 veterans supported by the newly created G.I. Bill, which allowed returning veterans to receive tuition and a living allowance for their period of military service. A grant from the Ford Foundation enabled Coro to expand its programming to Los Angeles. In later years, the Coro Internship program was renamed the Coro Fellows in Public Affairs Program.

In the early ‘60s, Coro co-founder, Don Fletcher, began visiting executives of the Danforth Foundation, explaining Coro’s mission and methodology. By 1970, the Danforth Foundation became convinced that Coro could make a difference in the St. Louis community. Both Don Fletcher and the Danforth Foundation believed that Coro’s rigorous training program would inspire talented young men and women to develop an understanding of public affairs and a commitment to the St. Louis community. The Coro Midwestern Center in St. Louis was established through a six-year, $600,000 grant from the Danforth Foundation.

Coro Leadership Center - St. Louis Programs:

Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs

The first Coro Fellows program in St. Louis was conducted in 1973. Since that time, Coro – St. Louis has graduated over 450 participants from its cornerstone Fellows Program.

Learn more about Coro Fellows Program »
Catch up with Fellows Alumni »

Women in Leadership Program

Perhaps the most successful of the new programs piloted by Coro St. Louis was Women in Leadership (WIL). Women in Leadership is a five-month, part-time training program aimed at providing an opportunity for women to refine their personal and professional leadership competencies as well as learn about the community. The first WIL class in 1981 had 35 members. To date, nearly 900 women have graduated from the Women in Leadership program.

Learn more about Coro's Women In Leadership Programs »
Catch up with WIL Alumni »

Community Leadership Programs

Reinvest targeted retired citizens and focused on engaging them and their wealth of experience as citizen leaders. The Reinvest program operated for 10 successful years, providing training to more than 100 citizens.

Neighborhood Leaders Program (NLP) was designed to serve community groups and provide them with training in the area of community development. As many as 300 neighborhood leaders graduated from NLP between 1986 and 2000. A recent grant from the Stupp Foundation is allowing the Center to provide additional training and activities for NLP alumni.

Giving Voice Program was created - in collaboration with Incarnate Word Foundation, Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis, and the Deaconess Foundation - to strengthen the voice of the faith community in our region by providing training to increase the number of faith leaders who are visible in the civic arena. From 2000 to 2005, the Giving Voice program trained approximately 50 citizen leaders in St. Louis’ faith communities.

For several years during the early 2000s, Emerging Leaders prepared high school leaders to enhance the quality of life in their communities by developing individual leadership, project management and team-building skills and providing community service opportunities for young men and women in several St. Louis area school districts. Early funding for the program was provided by the St. Louis Rams Foundation, with the Saigh Foundation providing funding in later years.

In addition to these programs, Coro offers customized programs to businesses and non-profit organizations in the St. Louis region. These customized programs focus on leadership skill development, project management, civic engagement, team-building and resource identification.  

Learn more about Coro's Cummunity Leadership Programs »
Catch up with Community Leadership Programs Alumni »