The impact of the coronavirus outbreak has led Children’s Trust to make adaptations to how it conducts training sessions with child-serving professionals across the state. Michael Shirley, the community education manager, explains how a successful transition from in-person to virtual trainings was made, which allows the organization to continue to conduct trainings on topics like adverse childhood experiences and the protective factors.
Michael Shirley leads a training at a prior conference. Children’s Trust has moved its training sessions online due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
One of the most frequently asked questions we get after an adverse childhood experiences (ACE) training is: “What can I do?”
We’ve aimed to answer that question in several ways, but there is still a slight reluctance to accept that the things we can do to prevent ACEs are not necessarily fully funded evidence-based programs. Though those programs do help, there are small but significant changes we can all make to ensure individuals and families are surrounded with protective factors to buffer the effects of toxic stress.
To reach more people with the message of protective factors, Children’s Trust has worked to develop a training around the protective factors that goes along with the recently-developed Empower Action Model. The protective factors training is a natural follow-up to ACEs that is designed to help individuals, organizations and communities start thinking about everyday actions and long-term strategies they can take to prevent child maltreatment and promote child well-being.
The training has an extensive introduction that covers topics like: Empower Action Model theories, taking a strengths-based approach, working with parents, and the importance of culture and race equity. Each protective factor then has its own module following a similar pattern of lecture, activities and videos to reinforce key points.
Recent events — including the COVID-19 pandemic and the outcry for racial justice following the killing of George Floyd, who died after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck as he pleaded for air — highlight the disparities in many communities and the need for more work to build protective factors. While an in-person training was in the works, the pandemic led to a virtual training of 10 Children’s Trust staff members, who will now be able to train communities in the protective factors.
As the Children’s Trust community education manager, I am thankful for the access to technology during these challenging times. Our other trainings were also impacted by COVID-19, but due to our ongoing use of Zoom and other platforms, we were able to quickly pivot our contracted training to an online space. We had to take a hard look at the existing content and modify for online adult learning. Attention spans are shorter, and there are more distractions at home. We joined the thousands of others who found themselves adapting and modifying practices to meet the needs of the newly remote workforce.
Discovering Better Ways to Work Online
Our organization learned several lessons along the way. After our first virtual ACE train-the-trainer for Greenville County Schools, we learned that even with built-in breaks, a six-hour Zoom call just doesn’t work like an all-day, in-person training would. We’ve redesigned our train-the-trainer offering to be spread out over several weeks instead of several days. Online training also looks different with added interactions to ensure participants stay engaged in the space. I’m happy to report that most of our feedback from participants has been positive so far, and we’ve used the constructive feedback to inform future trainings.
Speaking of future trainings, a series of online sessions will be made available in the fall as part of our ongoing relationship with the S.C. Department of Social Services. Those include the Early Childhood 101 and 102 courses that cover several protective factors, including knowledge of social-emotional development and developmental milestones.
An opportunity to become an ACE trainer is also planned for Nov. 4-5 with registration launching to those who signed up for the canceled in-person training first. Remaining spots will be open to the public. Before the pandemic, we talked about the need to move some of our training online to accommodate more people and reduce travel requirements. The pandemic forced us to move a little more quickly on equipping ourselves to offer online training and create resources for trainers in the virtual space.
If you’re interested in learning more about any of our training opportunities, visit scchildren.org/prevention-training or email mshirley@scchildren.org.