PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

EPIC's Professional Development workshops are designed to support those in the workforce that interact with children or families. Examples of workshops are listed below. If you or your agency are interested in any of EPIC's PD Workshops, please contact Jamie Rackl.

Communication Skills for Challenging Conversations (3 hours) 

• This training focuses on helping participants improve their communication. Together we will Define the nature of “challenging” interactions, discuss the basics of positive communication skills, and generate strategies to shift challenging communication into a more positive interaction 
• Participant Testimonial: “The training was excellent, the trainer is fun and used herself in examples which makes it relatable - the three hours went so fast. I enjoyed the conversations!”

Conflict Management (3 hours) 

• Participants explore causes of conflict, their conflict management style, and practice ways to manage conflict in a productive way in both their personal and professional lives. 

Differentiated Family Engagement (3 hours) 

• Differentiated Family Engagement (DFE) is an EPIC copyrighted framework intended to help afterschool/agency staff, school and district leaders, teachers, and parent leaders understand the goals and strategies for family engagement. Participants will learn to take into account a family’s ability and motivation to be involved in supporting their child’s success. DFE helps participants understand that a “one size fits all approach” to engaging
• families leaves a large majority of parents out of the picture. 
• Participant Testimonial: The training helped me recognize that while even though I am in an administrative position that feels removed from families and the opportunity to engage regularly, my work still impacts families and communities on a macro level. As program associates/liaisons, we as leaders are more empowered and of greater support to the field when we understand the challenges and also stages, strategies, etc. We are better equipped to support our program contacts, grantees, K-12 and Higher Education partners as they engage and interface directly with students and families. (NYSED Training)
• I think the most impactful piece was the stages of engagement and meeting the student where they are. Working for a college, sometimes people get caught up immediately in the academic pursuit, but our students need to be supported in so many other ways in order to be successful in that pursuit and it's our job as their college to help them in whatever way can. (Empire State College Training)
• This training was very informative and the speaker was phenomenal hitting major key points for bettering family engagement.

Dynamic Group Facilitation (in person) (7 hours) 

• This interactive experientially based training targets anyone who works with adults or youth in a group setting. It will provide an interactive and fun
• learning environment and give the participant the knowledge and skills they need to run any group effectively. Now broken into two opportunities
• targeting facilitating when in person and facilitating in a virtual setting. 
• Participant Testimonial: This training was great, and I came in with high expectations because I had heard so many good things about it! Even with facilitation experience, there was a lot of great information.

Dynamic Group Facilitation (virtual delivery) (3 hours) 

• This is a shorten version of EPIC’s Dynamic Group Facilitation adjusted to fit a virtual delivery model. This interactive workshop explores phases of a successful group, giving directions, managing participants, warm ups and more. 
• Participant Testimonial: Great training. Engaging material and fun presentation style. Very well prepared and thought out.

Dynamic Group Facilitation: When Facilitating Virtually (3 hours) 

• This workshop addresses issues that facilitators may face when leading programming, meetings, or groups in a virtual environment. It is interactive and provides participants with practical tools around creating virtual guidelines, managing the group, managing participant behavior, and creating connections in a virtual learning environment. 

Raising Resilience (3 hours) 

• This training utilizes the film Resilience in conjunction with discussion and group work to explore recognizing trauma and understating Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in children and families as well as helping to foster resilience in children and families. 
• Participant Testimonial: Thank you for this training. It coincides with some of the information I am learning about regarding trauma. Quite informative. Being a former preschool teacher, I was very impressed with the idea of incorporating the dramatic teaching of the Ms Kendra presentation. It is amazing how the children responded in a positive way.
• Thank you very much Jamie and EPIC for bringing this movie to us, for facilitating a thoughtful discussion and for letting us know we can reach out to you and pay a fee to present this important movie to our organization.
• This was by far the best Zoom training I've done since we've been on COVID started! Great job.

Self-Care for Professionals (3 hours) 

• This training explores stress, the impact it has on person and professional behaviors and relationships, personal roles in stress creation and reduction, and the creation and implementation of individualized action plans in order to effectively manage stress. 

Practical Self- Care Practices (1 hour) 

This hands-on training briefly explores stress and then focuses on practical tools such as visualization, breathing exercises, meditation, and yoga practices that participants can implement anywhere and anytime. 

Understanding a Poverty Mindset (90 minutes) 

• Participants unpack the social determinants of health statistics for their area in order to fully understand the challenges the families that they work with may be facing. Then utilizing a virtual poverty simulator, participants explore and discuss how poverty impacts the decisions that families make regarding their children’s education and health. 
• Participant Testimonial: I gained new awareness of the struggle with the day-to-day choices that must be made along with the stress and most likely the anxiety that poverty places on families.
• This was an impactful training that helped me remember that we don’t always know the whole picture about our students. We need to give them and their families the benefit of the doubt.
• This training was eye opening- through the poverty simulator I learned that poverty is more stressful than I realized. Everyday decisions that I make without out a second thought are more stressful for other parents, especially those impacted by poverty.