Advancing the Understanding and Practice of Identity Formation
Imago Dei Institute exists to advance both the understanding and practice of identity formation. We believe identity deserves intentional attention alongside education, leadership, and human development.
Our work brings together research, frameworks, education, transformative programs, and partnerships to strengthen how identity formation is understood and practiced across individuals, families, institutions, and communities.
We describe this interconnected approach as the Identity Formation Ecosystem. It connects the different areas of our work so that knowledge can inform practice, practice can generate learning, and collaboration can strengthen the work over time.
Programs
Flourishing
Families
Communities
The five areas of our work form an integrated system in which research, frameworks, education, transformative programs, and partnerships inform and strengthen one another. The outer ring represents the outcomes that can emerge as knowledge is translated into practice across individuals, families, institutions, and communities.
Research
Healthy practice begins with sound understanding.
We pursue research that deepens our understanding of identity formation and its influence on human flourishing, leadership, resilience, relationships, and social outcomes.
Our research seeks to explore how identity develops, the environments that shape it, and the conditions that help people flourish across different stages of life.
Through thoughtful inquiry and interdisciplinary engagement, we aim to contribute knowledge that serves families, educators, practitioners, institutions, and communities.
Frameworks
Organizing knowledge into practical models for application
We develop frameworks that organize research and insights into structured models for understanding and supporting identity formation.
Our frameworks provide the conceptual and practical architecture that guides education, programs, and application across different contexts. They define key areas of development and provide a consistent foundation that can be adapted to different populations and settings.
The Imago Dei Framework is the Institute’s foundational model for understanding identity formation. The Adolescent Girls Identity Development Framework is its first applied framework, translating that foundation into a model designed specifically for adolescent girls.
Education
Translating knowledge and frameworks into learning
Knowledge and frameworks become useful when they can be understood and applied.
We develop educational resources, learning experiences, publications, and teaching materials that make identity formation accessible and practical for individuals, educators, institutions, and communities.
Our educational work translates research and framework concepts into teaching, reflection, discussion, and learning experiences that help people develop their understanding of identity and its implications for everyday life.
Transformative Programs
Applying frameworks and learning through structured experiences
Transformative programs bring our frameworks and educational approaches into structured, sustained experiences designed to support development over time.
Programs may combine teaching, mentorship, reflection, practical application, and other developmentally appropriate methods. They provide opportunities for individuals to engage with, practice, and integrate what they are learning.
Programs also provide contexts in which we can observe what works, learn from implementation, and refine our frameworks and educational approaches.
Partnerships
Bringing the work into diverse contexts
Identity formation takes place within relationships and environments. Families, schools, faith communities, institutions, and wider society all influence how individuals develop their sense of identity.
We work with organizations and communities that share a commitment to human development, education, and purposeful living. Through partnerships with schools, churches, universities, organizations, governments, and communities, we bring our research, frameworks, educational resources, and programs into different contexts.
Partnerships also create opportunities for shared learning, adaptation, implementation, and broader application.
The Institute approaches identity formation as both a field of understanding and a practice of human development. We believe meaningful change requires more than knowledge alone. It requires opportunities to reflect, apply, grow, and translate understanding into everyday life.
Identity formation touches every stage of life and every part of society.
Identity formation is one of the defining opportunities of our time. As understanding continues to grow, it will play an increasingly important role in human flourishing and the development of future generations.
The Adolescent Girls Identity Development Framework
Our first practical expression of this work is the Adolescent Girls Identity Development Framework, a structured identity formation journey designed to help girls develop a secure sense of identity that shapes healthy choices, purposeful leadership, and lifelong flourishing.
Explore the Framework →