The Case:

For a variety of reasons, educators and social workers regularly struggle to engage families effectively. When engagement fails, so fails our opportunity to partner with and support our families in need. Without successful relationship building, students and families may not be receptive to the skills, tools, and resources we have to offer.  For this reason, our training focuses on a specific set of engagement concepts, skills, and tools.  Combined, we call this a focus on Engagement.

The Approach:

This course (Concepts & Tools for Improved Engagement 201), is the follow up to Concepts & Tools for Improved Engagement 101. We explore how to engage our clients (our families) in a manner that is real, honest, and essentially human. The concepts and tools offered in the 101 Course are reviewed and revisited for continuity and for a solid foundation. From this common foundation, we then go further and deeper into the work. 

Participants are not required to attend the 101 training prior to attending the 201.

In this 201 Course, we will participate in activities designed to examine and improve our language skills. We will build on the Ask-Offer-Ask tool and add a direction of inquiry we call "Going to the Emotion". Participants will have several opportunities to practice utilizing or implementing the new concepts and language in pairs. And finally, in this training we will do an "Integration Activity" designed to help professionals take in the range of information a family offers and determine where opportunities for change and growth may lie. 

Training Elements:

• The Case for Caution – Why we have to be careful before we share information
• The Ravine – What it's like to be going through crises/trauma
• The Power of Language - Some tips and tricks from the Lion's Den
• Listening – Our most important tool
• Going to the Emotion - A tool that lies at the intersection of all of our main concepts
• Non-judgment – How to understand our own biases
• Deciding where to begin - Our Integration Activity guides us on how to pick a starting point