From time to time many of you have told us that you appreciate our training offerings but you wish that there were more opportunities to delve deeper into subject matters. Experienced providers are looking for more advanced training, but also new educators and supervisors express the need for in-depth training. It has been challenging to chart training opportunities for an initiative that involves professionals with a wide range of expertise and experience.
We would like to tackle this dilemma by introducing Learning Collaboratives. What distinguishes these Collaboratives from our monthly webinars? Learning Collaboratives are interest groups that come together to:
- accomplish clearly articulated objectives and goals in a particular subject area
- learn cooperatively by articulating their needs, sharing their expertise, and jointly exploring new strategies and practices
Logistics
Participation is voluntary. You join if you are interested in the subject matter the Learning Collaborative will explore. Participants are actively engaged and committed to doing some extra work such as researching information and resources. Learning Collaboratives meet on a regular basis for a limited time period; for example, the collaborative might meet every other week over three months. Each Learning Collaborative will work out their own schedule. ACT for Youth will facilitate the meetings and provide support.
Benefits
Participants will post challenges, share strategies and practices, and engage in cooperative learning. There is great potential for developing new resources and tools that we can archive on the website and make accessible to the whole initiative.
Start up: February 27, 2018
We would like to focus the first Learning Collaborative on supervisors. Many Health Educator Supervisors have expressed challenges and questions about the responsibilities and tasks of supervisors. To mention just a few potential topics: Hiring and orienting new educators, retaining staff, handling personality conflicts, supervision, negotiating with subcontractors, community outreach… and any other topic you would like to tackle in this area.
Stay tuned for a special invitation with registration information.
Looking Ahead
We are planning a few other Learning Collaboratives focusing on:
- Parent education and engagement
- Professional development needs of experienced educators
We would love to hear what you think about this approach. Any suggestions or comments? Is there another topic you would like to dive into with your CAPP or PREP colleagues?
– Jutta