Want to learn how to involve families in your afterschool program? Need ideas for developing successful programming that engages both the youth you serve and your adult staff? Check out GUIDE’s training series taking place through October. Made possible by the Governor’s Office for Children and Families, GUIDE is offering these amazing training opportunities for only $10! Plus, participants will walk away with 5.75 NASW credits per workshop. Don’t miss out!
Family Engagement: Strategies for Success
Date: Wednesday, May 14 Time: 9 am – 3:30 pm Location: Henry County Chamber of Commerce, McDonough Funded By: Governor’s Office for Children and Families Conducted By: GUIDE, Inc. Staff Cost: $10 per personDescription: Thirty years of research confirms that when families and caregivers are engaged in their children’s and teenager’s education, youth earn higher grades and test scores, attend school more consistently, complete more homework, demonstrate more positive attitudes and behaviors, graduate from high school at higher rates, and are more likely to enroll in higher education than students with less involved families. Harvard Professor Robert Putnam has written that given a choice between a 10% increase in school budgets or a 10% increase in family engagement, he would invest in family engagement due to its positive impact on youth outcomes.
In this workshop, participants will gain the knowledge, tools, and resources to effectively design a comprehensive, well planned and long lasting partnership with families and caregivers. Participants will leave with a host of best practice tools, techniques, and resources that will assist in the development and implementation of a successful family engagement program.
For more information and to register, click here.
Developing Dynamic Programs and Activities
Date: Thursday, June 26 Time: 9 am – 3:30 pm Location: Alpharetta Business Center, Alpharetta Funded By: Governor’s Office for Children and Families Conducted By: GUIDE, Inc. Staff Cost: $10 per personDescription: Youth development professionals are designers by nature. An essential act of the profession is the design of learning experiences to engage and motivate youth. Yet with so many responsibilities and so little time, planning can quickly become a burden. This workshop is designed to ease that burden and reinvigorate your spirit of innovation.
Whether you aim to design innovative and imaginative learning experiences from scratch, seek to enhance the implementation and impact of existing curricula, are searching for a myriad of individual activities to keep your program exciting, or want to employ longer term project-based learning experiences, THIS WORKSHOP IS FOR YOU!
Participants will gain knowledge, skills, and a host of resources for implementing high-yield learning experiences that meaningfully engage youth and staff ready to hit the ground running.
For more information and to register, click here.
Effectively Using Social Media
Date: Thursday, July 10 Time: 9 am – 3:30 pm Location: Macon, exact location TBD Funded By: Governor’s Office for Children and Families Conducted By: GUIDE, Inc. Staff Cost: $10 per personDescription: In this interactive course, participants will learn how to create multiple Social Media messages for a variety of channels from a single campaign or issue. Participants will have the opportunity to see examples of a successful Social Media presence and practice crafting messages related to their own work.
Participants will leave with an understanding of strategies for leveraging facts, issues and impacts of their afterschool, youth development or abstinence messages through Social Media, be able to apply best practice principles to craft messages for various channel and learn how to use Social Media to network with others in the field.
This course is appropriate for those who have a general understanding of the Social Media channels, but want more information on content creation and strengthening their Social Media presence. We will discuss Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and Blogging. The course will not include setting up accounts or the basics on how to use these sites.
Registration coming soon!
Developing an In-House Approach to Staff Development
Date: Thursday, August 7 Time: 9 am – 3:30 pm Location: Peachtree City, exact location TBD Funded By: Governor’s Office for Children and Families Conducted By: GUIDE, Inc. Staff Cost: $10 per personDescription: The need for effective professional development for staff in the field of afterschool and youth development is well known. However, due to the limitations of cost and travel, it is often difficult to ensure that all staff have access to professional development opportunities such as workshops and conferences.
When designed and implemented effectively, in-house professional development capitalizes on the expertise and wisdom of members of your program team and can be leveraged to create an extremely effective system. The benefits are multifold. This powerful staff development approach can foster accountability, collegiality, professionalism, and pride. Staff will feel appreciated and respected for their contributions and knowledge, and become confident and more competent in their own practice.
This interactive workshop will provide participants with the knowledge, tools, and resources to design and implement a high quality in-house professional development system that is tailored to your program’s culture and needs.
Registration coming soon!
The Road to Sustainability
Date: Wednesday, September 10 Time: 9 am – 3:30 pm Location: Conyers, exact location TBD Funded By: Governor’s Office for Children and Families Conducted By: GUIDE, Inc. Staff Cost: $10 per personDescription: Program sustainability is often thought to exclusively mean raising money. But money is only part of the equation. Raising money depends on having a quality program and demonstrating results. And showing effective results, in turn, is based on strong management practices. As such, getting to sustainability requires a carefully constructed plan, a vision, and a broad base of support.
This workshop addresses several key facets of sustainability that in combination, will lay the groundwork for ensuring your program continues on a long-term basis. Through an array of interactive and hands-on experiences, participants will gain knowledge, skills, and resources in three fundamental areas of sustainability: building collaboration, advocating for support, and finding funding.
Registration coming soon!
Using Inquiry and Insight to Improve Program Quality
Date: Thursday, October 30 Time: 9 am – 3:30 pm Location: Atlanta Marriott Century Center, Atlanta Funded By: Governor’s Office for Children and Families Conducted By: GUIDE, Inc. Staff Cost: $10 per personDescription:Curiosity begins at an early age. Children are naturally inquisitive about everything they see. Yet throughout childhood and adolescence, curiosity diminishes significantly. Adherence to curiosity over time creates the path to further and further learning. It is those who continue to ask questions – those who answer one question and ask another – who eventually become the experts in given fields. How do we help our children and youth never to lose their curiosity? How do we help them accept what they are told but also to question what they are told? It is up to us as adults to encourage wonder in our children and youth.
Our morning workshop session, Cultivating Curiosity, will explore curiosity and the inquiry as valuable cognitive resources – for youth and for adults. Participants will gain an understanding of how to encourage the development of wonder and awe in youth and how these traits facilitate the development of lifelong learning.
The morning session will be followed by 2 breakout sessions – Infusing Positive Youth Development into Prescribed Curricula and Self-Assessment as a Vehicle for Continual Program Improvement.
In Infusing Positive Youth Development into Prescribed Curricula, participants will apply the insight gained in the opening session by learning to adapt prescribed curricula to incorporate youth development best practices. Embedding positive youth development strategies in curricula ensures that youth are excited about their learning, feel involved in the process, learn how to generate and extend ideas, apply imagination and seek alternative innovative outcomes. However, integrating innovative and imaginative approaches in the curricula does not mean abandoning the prescribed objectives. In this breakout, participants will gain the tools to help them identify the essential understanding in curricula and design creative instructional activities that establish meaningful and impactful learning experiences while maintaining fidelity to the curricular model.
In Self-Assessment as a Vehicle for Continual Program Improvement, participants will apply a lens of inquiry to their own practices as youth development professionals. In this workshop, participants will gain tools for taking steps towards continual quality program improvement by gathering information, examining what staff, youth participants, and other stakeholders are doing and saying, and assessing the quality of the program. Participants will learn how to employ tools that specifically focus on the critical items of quality and develop systems for integrating self-assessment in the infrastructure of their programs.
Registration coming soon!
Course Fees, Discounts, Payment & Registration Information
Each course is priced separately.
All costs include light breakfast snacks and coffee, lunch and materials.
Online payment is available during registration via credit or debit card. If paying by check, it should be mailed, with invoice/confirmation available after registration, to GUIDE, Inc. Checks MUST be received by the date indicated on the registration page. This date varies per workshop.
All courses require pre-registration!