About our Workshops



Management & Administration


Crisis Resilient Engagement
Candace Chance, CEO: The V.P.I. Firm
At the heart of engagement is the quality of relationships and shared vision of transformation. A crisis can be seen as an opportunity to "refine by fire" the relationships previously established and forge deeper and more vulnerable connections that create the conditions for transformative actions. In this workshop you will receive strategies on creating the type of stakeholder and community engagement that can withstand the test of any crisis.

Engaging Your Board During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Legal and Practical Tools and Considerations
Kathy Ghiladi, Partner: Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP
Community action agencies are required to have and benefit from meaningful Board involvement. This session is aimed at providing management with both legal and practical tools to promote Board involvement and engagement even in an environment of remote/distant contact due to the COVID-19 pandemic. How can management engage the Board to ensure that the agency not only survives but thrives and plans for both recovery and learning opportunities once the pandemic is over.

Multigenerational Family Development Plan
Roe Falcone, Regional Director of Operations: EDSI
The workshop will educate workforce development professionals on the benefits of an innovative and collaborative new programming model focused on engaging multiple generations within the same family in the hopes of interrupting the cycle of poverty. The approach focuses on creating opportunities for and addressing the needs of both children and their families. Outcomes for parents include reduced parental stress, stronger educational and employment skills and confidence as child’s first teacher. Positive outcomes for children include improved school readiness, improved social abilities, emotional and educational development, and more positive interactions with their parents. Overall outcomes for the family include increased family income and financial security, ability to meet basic needs, and a more stable and secure family environment. Multi-generation programs can support growth and opportunity, not only for parents and children, but entire communities.

High Performing Team: Community Action in the Midst of a Crisis
Berneitha K. McNair, President and CEO: Berneitha McNair Consulting
This session highlights how community action agencies can operate as high-performing teams in the midst of a crisis. Participants will learn the importance of providing a comprehensive, holistic approach to services for families, also while operating like well-oiled machine that achieves results.

Managing Remote Staff
Matthew Ogunbukola, Consultant
This session will cover, effective management of expectations and productivity in a remote work environment, address challenges of managing remote staffs and how to mitigate those challenge and provide best practices in the management of remote staffs.


Program & Professional Development


Introduction to Restorative Practices in the Workplace
Anne Hilb, Founder, Lead Consultant: Graymake, LLC
Restorative philosophy believes that communities are best equipped to determine their own needs, how to meet them, and to repair when things go wrong.

The fundamental hypothesis of restorative practices embodies fair process by asserting that "people are happier, more cooperative and productive, and more likely to make positive changes in behavior when those in authority do things with them, rather than to them or for them."

As we continue to explore what it means to live in the era of humanistic management and dignity in the workplace, what might Restorative Justice have to offer both our communities and in particular, our workplaces?

(Mental) Health, Resilience and Building Safe, Healthy, Supportive Community
David Brown, Executive Director: Echo Resource Development, INC
The workshop explores an ecological approach to promoting individual and group safety and health by building supportive communities. The discussion includes elements of mental health, toxic stress, trauma, grief and loss and how to limit the impact.

Self Care as a Tool for Professional Practice
Anne Hilb, Founder, Lead Consultant: Graymake, LLC
Self-care is the practice of taking an active role in protecting one’s own well-being and happiness, in particular, during periods of stress. This session will combine self-audits, group dialogue and self-reflections to continue in our individual and collective journeys to better care for ourselves. This facilitation will work to uncover more about how if we are caring for and balancing all aspects of self, we can do better work, as it is richer coming from a place of wholeness.

Working with Humans: Using a DiSC® Approach to Building Stronger Relationships
Linda Howard, President: Howard Consulting LLC
Are there people on your team or in your organization that you just don’t “get” or those who just don’t “get” YOU? Have you ever wished you had your own survival guide just to communicate with the various types of individuals we see and talk with each day? A “Tips” manual might be helpful – something that could offer clues to the unique personalities and behaviors exhibited by our colleagues, prospects, and clients. In this session, we will explore how the DiSC® model can help us better understand the dynamics of certain relationships and develop strategies for improving our interactions with our colleagues and teams.

Zooming In? Or Zoning Out? – Tips to Engage More in your Virtual Meetings
Linda Howard, President: Howard Consulting LLC

  • Are you struggling to help your staff and teams stay connected while working remotely?
  • Do you feel you are losing touch?
  • Feeling disconnected to your work or your team?

We’re all finally starting to accept that we will be physical distancing for many more months and we need to find more ways to stay “connected” to each other online. We also need to be sure that participants in our online meetings are engaged and really want to keep paying attention!

Why is it important in online meetings to keep engagement high? To create opportunities for everyone to participate and to motivate people to engage in the topics being discussed. Finding ways to add some interest and fun to your meetings while still moving forward with your objectives is critical, especially now. Did you know you could do more with Zoom besides just watch everyone’s face and use the chat? You can ask questions in a poll, use breakout rooms for small group discussions, draw, brainstorm idea and easily get feedback from your team in a more interesting way than simply talking and chatting. In this session, you will learn techniques, activities, and tools to help you get work done, stay connected to your participants (peers, staff, teams, donors, clients, and/or customers), and even have fun in the process!

Direct Services


Adapting and Sustaining Services in Crises
Eric Seymour, Program Manager: Esperanza Center
In 2018, the Esperanza Center was forced to close the doors of its primary location due to a fire in a neighboring paint store. The Center's staff scrambled to find new spaces suitable for its clients and was able to resume operations in three different locations in less than three weeks. Two years later, Esperanza was forced to adapt its service model yet again when the Coronavirus pandemic forced closures around the world. Drawing from these two experiences, members of Esperanza Center's leadership team will present the lessons they've learned from these experiences and provide the audience with best practices for sustaining programs during a crisis.

COVID-19 Food System Response in Montgomery County, Maryland
Heather Bruskin, Executive Director: Montgomery County Food Council
This presentation will share details about the Montgomery County Food Council’s role in convening partners, stakeholders and County government agencies in a robust and far reaching COVID-19 food system response in Montgomery County. In addition to providing information about the Food Council and background information relating to food insecurity in Montgomery County, the presentation will describe capacity and network building strategies, the activities of the Food Security Task Force, the creation of food assistance grant opportunities, and the sharing of information and food assistance navigation resources, in order to increase fair, equitable and efficient resident access to food during the pandemic.

Whole Family/2-Generation


Multi-generational Approach to ACES (Adverse childhood experiences) and linkage Whole Family Stability
Johnette Lanham, MSW Assistant Director of Child Support: Dorchester Department of Social Services
A look at practices, policies, and partnerships when dealing with ACES from a multi-generational approach and the link to a family's well-being and self-sufficiency. This approach advocates for a systems approach for collective impact of resources for the whole family.

Multigenerational Family Development Plan
Roe Falcone, Regional Director of Operations: EDSI, Inc.
The workshop will educate workforce development professionals on the benefits of an innovative and collaborative new programming model focused on engaging multiple generations within the same family in the hopes of interrupting the cycle of poverty. The approach focuses on creating opportunities for and addressing the needs of both children and their families. Outcomes for parents include reduced parental stress, stronger educational and employment skills and confidence as child’s first teacher.

Positive outcomes for children include improved school readiness, improved social abilities, emotional and educational development, and more positive interactions with their parents. Overall outcomes for the family include increased family income and financial security, ability to meet basic needs, and a more stable and secure family environment. Multi-generation programs can support growth and opportunity, not only for parents and children, but entire communities.

Two-Generation Approaches
Tiffany Day, Systems Change & Policy Analyst: Ascend, The Aspen Institute
This session will have participants learn more about the Two-Generation principles and core components by highlight tools and from other leading organizations engaged in 2Gen approaches; and participate in generation activities and solution focused discussions to inform 2Gen strategies and implementation.


Housing


Housing Workshops are being developed with the Maryland Department of Housing & Community Development. More information coming soon.