Training Courses

Assessment and Intervention Series

Issues surrounding youth suicide, child abuse, substance abuse, "acting-out" behaviors, and traumatized high-risk youth, can pose daunting challenges for even seasoned professionals. Youth workers need to be able to decrease their own anxiety level and increase their comfort level in order to intervene effectively. As such, these courses offer practical, proactive assessment and crisis management strategies. Trainings emphasize changes in knowledge, attitudes, skills, and perceived self-efficacy. Our theory-based, intensive courses are designed for select staff such as school special services workers, guidance counselors, crisis management workers, student assistance personnel, mental health professionals, and administrators.

Courses provide information on:

• Recognizing Signs and Symptoms
• Assessing Risk
• Intervening with Parents, Peers, and Systems
• Making Effective Referrals

WHO'S RESISTING WHOM? EFFECTIVELY ENGAGING PARENTS (1 DAY)
This course introduces a systematic framework for understanding and dealing with resistance. Trainees participate in role-plays and other active training methods to enhance their use of basic knowledge about human behavior and ultimately to find common ground by employing strategies that most of us know but don't always apply.

ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVE DISORDER (1 DAY)
This highly practical workshop is specifically designed to help mental health professionals and school counselors sharpen their intervention skills with parents, teachers, and children. Professionals who work with ADHD children and adults will benefit from this highly informative session.

BEYOND BLAME, PREJUDICE, & DISCRIMINATION (1 DAY)
International unrest has stirred up powerful emotions and reactions in persons of all ages and cultural backgrounds. Participants will engage in dialogue about effective strategies for responding appropriately to youths and/or colleagues who, in the wake of the terrorist attacks, may be having difficulty appropriately channeling their feelings towards diverse groups of people. Participants will share strategies, curricula, and other resources used to reduce the incidence of bias crimes and discrimination in the community.

HART: HEALING and RECOVERY AFTER TRAUMA
Designed to enhance the skills of professionals who work with youths and their families who in the wake of the terrorist attacks are experiencing significant emotional and/or behavioral difficulties.

• YOUTH AND TRAUMA: AWARENESS: (1 DAY)
  This course, designed for all staff includes general information on common grief reactions, trauma reactions, the identification and referral of youths-at-risk, and practical strategies for helping students cope in the aftermath of the acute trauma.

• YOUTH AND TRAUMA: EFFECTIVE INDENTIFICATION, INTERVENTION AND REFERRAL OF YOUTH-AT-RISK (1 DAY)
  This course, designed for school special services workers, guidance counselors, crisis management workers, student assistance personnel, and mental health professionals offers practical, proactive assessment and crisis management strategies. Training includes information on common grief reactions, trauma reactions, the identification and referral of youths-at-risk, and practical strategies for helping students cope in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. Participants are requested to bring real-life cases for consultation.

• ENHANCING YOUTH RESILIENCE (1 DAY)
  This experiential course is designed to enhance the skills of those professionals who are in a position to facilitate positive coping strategies and build resilience in youths in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. In this course, participants will explore how their own beliefs and styles of coping may impact their work. Participants also will develop skills and strategies to enhance their capacity to work with youths in the aftermath of the attacks on the United States of America.

BRIDGES: BUIILDING SKILLS TO REACH SUICIDAL AND AT RISK YOUTH
This innovative suicide prevention training program, field tested in over 800 schools and youth serving agencies, provides your staff with the training to identify and help students at risk for self-injury.

• BRIDGE: Awareness (1 DAY)
  Prepares all staff to be able to observe warning signs, network with colleagues and make appropriate referrals.

• BRIDGES (2 DAYS)
  Designed for select staff to enhance participants' understanding of adolescent suicide, assessment skills, ability to prevent and manage crises, and comfort level in responding to suicidal and other high-risk youth.

• BRIDGES: TRAINING FOR TRAINERS (2 DAYS)
  Prepares school-appointed trainers (clinically trained social workers and psychologists) to guide teachers, support staff, and administrators through the BRIDGES curriculum.

Conflict Resolution and Mediation Series

These hands-on, comprehensive courses prepare auxiliary staff, teachers, and administrators to promote peaceful and safe school climates and resolve conflicts involving students, staff, and parents. Negotiation, communication, anger management and mediation are the basic skills addressed in these training courses.

AN INTRODUCTION TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION (2 DAYS)
Provides a conceptual framework and basic strategies for understanding and dealing with conflict systemically using a "win-win" approach.

BYE BYE BULLYING (1 DAY)
Participants will learn about: the scope of the problem of bullying; a framework for understanding the complex factors contributing to the development and the maintenance of a person in the status of bully or victim; characteristics of bullies and victims; school-focused multifaceted prevention and intervention strategies (to include concrete suggestions for classroom focused strategies); and application of the prevention and intervention strategies.

BRUSH UP THOSE MEDIATION SKILLS (1 DAY)
Refresher course designed for trained mediators; includes supervised practice and case consultation.
For: Trained Mediators (proof of a minimum of 30 hrs Alternative Dispute Resolution mediation and/or conflict resolution training required for enrollment)

TEAMING UP TO TALK IT OUT: PEER-LED MEDIATION (3 DAYS)
Students learn mediation techniques and skills for resolving conflict peacefully. Conflict resolution, personal communication, problem solving, and negotiation skills are introduced. For: Middle and High School-Aged Youth (maximum 15 students per school)

TEAMING UP TO TALK IT OUT - ADULT-LED MEDIATION (5 DAYS)
This Alternative Dispute Resolution course provides an introduction to the basic skills and procedures needed to formally mediate conflicts in a school or organizational setting. For: Adult Mediation Teams (two person teams are required from a single educational facility for agency)

Approved as a Social Studies and/or Health Curriculum for High School, SANKOFA promotes a message of youth responsibility and self-control. It has been designed to instill the "Seven Cs" in youth: consciousness, connectedness, conduct, commitment, competency, creativity, and courage.

SANKOFA COURSE (as contracted)
Youth will participate in this 27-hour curriculum that uses validated and intensive training approaches to change behavior and help teens reduce their risk for violence perpetration and victimization. Adult sponsors may elect to be trained to facilitate this program.
For: High School Aged Youth

SANKOFA FACILITATOR TRAINING (7 DAYS)
Intensive training program prepares appointed staff to implement the structured SANKOFA adolescent and parent violence prevention training curricula within the school/community setting.

Prism - Embracing Diversity Program

As a prism is made up of a spectrum of color, so too does our society increasingly reflect cultural diversity. In spite of the "melting pot" myth and efforts to ignore group differences, ethnicity continues to shape the values, behavioral patterns and belief systems of different cultural groups. The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey has created PRISM in response to this emerging social phenomenon. Our multi-service program provides participants with the self-awareness, information and skills to respond proactively to the problems and opportunities presented in increasingly culturally diverse settings.

WORKING WITH LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL & TRANSGENDER YOUTH (1 DAY)
This workshop introduces participants to the general experiences and issues of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) adolescents. Through experiential training events, participants will develop new insights and perspectives useful in assessing and supporting adolescent clients with managing issues of sexual orientation and sexual identity. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to understand a basic vocabulary of terms related to work with LGBT adolescents, identify significant variables impacting the care of LGBT clients, and develop effective interventions for addressing the needs of LGBT clients.