May 2020 – The Commons

Changes to the Training Calendar Start in June

Starting June 1 the training calendar will look a little different. First, we’ll launch a few new work groups and move all work groups to a bi-weekly meeting schedule. We will also offer one of our regular one-day trainings, Introducing a Trauma-Informed Approach, online via a series of webinars.

New Work Groups

Peer Educator Training: As a follow-up to Teresa Casullo’s webinar Growing Youth Educators, this work group will focus on developing training material for youth peer educators, sharing and refining training materials already developed, and contributing to a training manual. Teresa Casullo and Michele Luc will host this work group.

Practicing Social Media Platforms: This work group will provide a forum for providers who are exploring and beginning to use virtual meeting and social media platforms. It will give participants an opportunity to practice basic functions of various virtual meeting/social media platforms and obtain insights and advice from more experienced peers. This work group will be hosted by Heather and Marisol.

Component 2 (SRAE & CAPP): This work group will focus on developing and sharing workshop material dedicated to Component 2 programming. Topic areas may include life skills, financial literacy, career exploration, digital literacy, citizenship, and relationship and communication skills. This group will also explore how programming can be done virtually since youth summer programs will be closed. The work group will be hosted by Jutta.

Existing work groups will continue on a bi-weekly schedule. The current SRAE work group will merge with the Component 2 work group.

Moving Trainings Online

Usually, in June we offer a one-day training: Introducing a Trauma-Informed Approach. Since we are not able to do any face-to-face trainings for a while, we are creating a virtual training, a series of 3 webinars beginning June 16. Please join us for:

Understanding Trauma and its Impact
Principles of a Trauma-Informed Approach
Integrating Trauma-Informed Care into Organizational Practice.

Registration

Remember to register for any meeting or webinar you want to attend. You’ll find the registration links on the training calendar.

Any additional ideas for online trainings?

Please get in touch with us if you have any ideas or recommendations for additional online training topics. Thanks.

~ Jutta

Reading Club Selection for May 22, 2020

Mindsets! We’ve all heard about Carol Dweck’s exciting research on growth and fixed mindsets, but are we putting that research to work effectively?

This week we’ll discuss Dweck’s contention that people have not fully understood how to implement her work, and how we might need to slightly shift our approach in order to be more effective.

Read The Atlantic: How Praise Became a Consolation Prize

And remember to register for the May 22 reading club.

See you then!

~ Karen

May 2020 Calendar

The full May Training Calendar is now online, chock full of selections for your professional development during quarantine. Register through the calendar by clicking on any event that catches your eye.

I want to highlight a special web meeting that will presented for us by Regina Firpo-Triplett of dFusion/ETR: Introducing SkillFlix. SkillFlix is a web-based application specifically designed for educators who teach sexual health to adolescents. It is centered around a streaming library of brief videos that model critical educator skills and micro-skills using real-life scenarios. The scenarios focus on answering sensitive questions and being inclusive of LGBTQ youth. This virtual professional development tool will be made available to SRAE, CAPP, and PREP, from mid-May through mid-July only. Register for the May 14, 2pm Introducing SkillFlix meeting to find out more and learn how to access this excellent—but time-limited–resource.

Also, the popular Reading Club is back beginning May 15. We will post reading selections (and sometimes a video) each Monday on the blog. If you have articles to suggest, please let us know any time!

~ Jutta