Trainings and Workshops

Change is occurring in every community. Government and other community institutions can no longer work in isolation to find ways to create positive change. Communities must find new, more effective ways to collaborate, identify new leaders, engage citizens, and assess how well their community is working. Understanding these approaches is crucial to address today's challenges.

Community Services delivers hands-on trainings on how to effectively deal with the complexities of community change. Our training style combines interactive presentations, large and small group discussion, hands-on skill-building exercises, and reference materials. We tailor our trainings to the needs of a particular audience, from a two-hour presentation to a week-long "institute."

We also find that follow-up assistance can be invaluable to organizations and communities and often link training with follow-up activities.

Some of the most valuable learning is peer-to-peer, whether it is neighborhood leader to neighborhood leader or mayor to mayor. Further, we believe that wisdom also comes from those working "on the ground". Creating learning environments where participants can educate each other is one of our specialties. To achieve this goal, we work with participants to construct agendas, materials, and resources that meet their needs and help them achieve their objectives.

The following trainings and workshops can be customized to meet the needs of your community:

Community Visioning and Strategic Planning 101

Community Services facilitators provide a basic, comprehensive, and customized training on our proven community visioning and strategic planning processes. Participants will learn how to begin a planning process, identify and recruit who should be involved, and how to overcome potential pitfalls and develop the necessary ingredients for success.

Civic Infrastructure: How Well Does Your Community Work?

The Civic Index is a tool designed by the National Civic League for communities to assess and enhance their civic infrastructure - those relationships, abilities and skills that communities possess to solve problems. Through the Civic Index training, participants will learn how to:

• Use a unique stakeholder analysis to identify the broad diversity of a community
• Facilitate dialogue on community issues and help citizens identify strengths and challenges
• Help communities develop indicators of success
• Help communities develop action plans to reach their desired future

Facilitation 101

Facilitation is a critical tool for any leader of a group. Our experienced staff facilitates workshops that will give participants practical techniques and skills to conduct productive group meetings. Participants will learn how to:

• Set up agendas so that decisions are achieved
• Prevent and intervene in dealing with conflict during meetings
• Keep groups focused within a discussion and for getting the meeting back on track
• Obtain tools to move people into effective decision making

Leadership for Today's Complex World

Community Services works with community leaders to develop the leadership skills necessary to facilitate community change. Elected and appointed officials, business leaders, non-profit executives and community change agents across the nation are among the many participants who have benefited from Community Services trainings. Our customized trainings:

• Demonstrate why today's complex realities demand new leadership skills
• Develop skills and techniques essential for collaborative problem solving and consensus-based decision making
• Help communities change the way they do business

Engaging Citizens in Performance Measurement

Our experienced team facilitates workshops for communities to increase their understanding of performance measurement and how it can be used to create change. Participants learn:

• What performance measurement is and what it can and cannot tell you
• How to use performance information to improve service planning and delivery
• How to explore opportunities for community partnerships aimed at improving outcomes.

Community-Based Approaches to Core Public Health Functions

Community Services facilitators train personnel from all levels of public health departments on community-based approaches to core public health functions (assessment, assurance and policy development). Participants learn how to:

• Partner with the community to strengthen the department's overall effectiveness
• Create a stronger internal connection among staff
• Enhance facilitation and critical thinking skills.

Systems Change and Public Engagement Trainings

Community Services-DC and the Partnership for Community Problem Solving offer a variety of workshops that can help communities and organizations build their capacity to work collaboratively. Their training style combines interactive presentations, the incorporation of local issues into the curriculum, hands-on skill building exercises, and written reference materials. PCPS trainers specialize in public policy, negotiations, conflict resolution training, and public involvement and engagement.