Preservice and Professional Development Topics from DCRC

It’s that time of year when programs begin to plan for pre-service training for the fall. The Devereux Center for Resilient Children is offering a wide variety of trainings that can excite, inspire, and educate staff in an effort to start the year off right.  Professional development opportunities include:

Early Childhood Focus

• DECA/DECA-IT Overview or Implementation Training – These trainings are designed for programs who plan to use the DECA for Infants and Toddlers Program and/or the DECA Preschool Program. Participants will learn about the importance of resilience and how to implement our strength-based assessment and planning systems in their programs and with families. These trainings can also support programs who work with children birth through five years old.
• DECA/DECA-IT Program Refresher Training – Customized to meet your program’s needs, this 1-day session can offer a review of the DECA/DECA-IT Program Implementation process or focus on a few areas that need more attention. If your program has transitioned from the DECA Preschool First Edition to the DECA Preschool Second Edition, we can provide a training that highlights the new elements of the DECA Preschool Program Second Edition!
• DECA/DECA-IT Program Advanced Planning Training – If your program has been trained on the DECA/DECA-IT Program and is looking for more support on using assessment results for planning, this 1-day training is for you! This training provides a brief review and then focuses on using assessment results to plan at the classroom/group level as well as for individual children who may need additional supports.
• DECA/DECA-IT Local Program Mentor Training – This training is for programs looking to develop internal capacity to provide on-going workshops and technical assistance on the DECA/DECA-IT Program. Leave this training with the skills and materials to supportdirect care staff on the use of the DECA/DECA-IT Program.
• DECA-Clinical Training – This training provides a foundation for using the DECA-C, a behavior rating scale that assesses both protective factors and behavioral concerns of young children, ages 2-5. Designed for participants who meet Level B User qualifications. For more information about Level B User qualifications, please contact Debi Mahler at dmahler@devereux.org.
• NEW! Your Journey Together Training – DCRC’s newest offering! Your Journey Together (YJT) is a strength-based curriculum designed to promote the social and emotional well-being and resilience of vulnerable children and their families. The curriculum is based on 29 stepping stones, which are 10-15 minute lessons that can be used with families, both in home visiting and in group settings. Your Journey Together is a great resource that can complement programs using the DECA Program but can also be used independent of DECA. Professional development can be offered in a live, 1-day format as well as in distance learning formats.
• FLIP IT Training – This 1-day training can complement the use of the DECA Program or can be a stand-alone training to support children (ages 3-8) with challenging behavior. FLIP IT teaches staff about four supportive steps that can be used to help young children learn about their feelings, gain self-control and reduce challenging behavior. When faced with challenging behavior, don’t FLIP OUT, just FLIP IT! On-line learning course on FLIP IT is also available at www.mylearningpointe.com/FLIPIT. * 2 Day FLIP IT Train-the-Trainer Session also available to communities. Contact Debi Mahler, Director of Professional Development, at dmahler@devereux.org for more information.
• NEW! Advanced FLIP IT Training – Has your program received FLIP IT Training and looking for more opportunities to practice FLIPPING? We now offer a highly interactive and hands-on 1-Day Training that provides additional opportunities to build skills in mastering the FLIP IT strategy.
• Facing the Challenge Training – This 1-day training offers more on the topic of challenging behavior in preschool children. Included in this training is more on what is challenging behavior, what is developmentally appropriate behavior, why do children misbehave, prevention strategies, behavioral planning, and intervention strategies. Video vignettes and case studies will be used to illustrate key points. * 2.5 Day Facing the Challenge Train-the-Trainer Session also available to communities. Contact Debi Mahler, Director of Professional Development, at dmahler@devereux.org for more information.
• Socially Strong, Emotionally Secure: Activities to Promote the Resilience of Preschoolers at School and Home– This 1-day training is for programs both familiar and not familiar with the DECA Program. This training focuses on everyday activities that can be used to teach social and emotional skills both within the classroom and for use by families in the home. Participants will leave this session understanding how everyday activities, when used in meaningful, intentional ways, are powerful teaching tools! 

School-age Focus

• DESSA and DESSA-mini Training – Interested in learning more about our newest screening and assessment system designed to promote resilience of school-age children? Join co-author Paul LeBuffe as he shares information about the use the DESSA Comprehensive System in schools, out-of-school-time programs, and a variety of other settings. This training can be delivered via webinar or live in a 1-day format.
• NEW! Promoting the Resilience and Social and Emotional Competence and Resilience of School-age Children Training – All around the country, programs are emphasizing the importance of social and emotional competence. Why? First, because research clearly shows that these skills are essential for students’ success in school, the workplace and the community. Second, because these are skills that can and should be taught by youth workers in out-of-school-time programs. This training will help us understand what social and emotional competence is, why it is so important, and what we can do in our programs to teach these skills to our students.

Adult Focus

• Building Your Bounce: Promoting Adult Resilience Training – This training/workshop/keynote can provide an educational and inspirational start to the school year. Using the Devereux Adult Resilience Survey (DARS) and the Building Your Bounce journal published by the Devereux Center for Resilient Children, this workshop is a fun way for caregivers to recognize the importance of their own resilience and how it relates to their ability to provide quality care to the children with whom they work. Get ready to reflect, laugh, and have fun while also learning important resilience-building skills !
• NEW! Advanced Building Your Bounce: Promoting Adult Resilience Training – Has your program received training on Building Your Bounce in the past? This next level training dives deeper into the understanding the characteristics of resilience in adults and provides additional strategies on how to strengthen these areas through simple, everyday strategies. As we all know, it is critically important to take care of ourselves!
• NEW! Building Your Bounce: Promoting Adult Resilience Webinar series – DCRC offers recorded webinars on key content related to adult resilience. If your program is looking for a refresher or perhaps a learning experience to occur over time, this option may be for you! Complete with interactive elements within the webinars along with group discussion questions at the conclusion of each webinar, this professional development opportunity offers a cost efficient and flexible way to share content with your staff.
• NEW! Resilient Leadership – Building Staff Bounce! – In this training, leaders will have an opportunity to reflect on what it means to be a resilient leader and how to build the bounce of staff. Leaders will use the Devereux Resilient Leadership Survey (DERLS) to reflect on ways to support their staff resilience. This training provides many opportunities to learn and develop meaningful and resilience building strategies for staff based on the DERLS research-informed items.   Finally, leaders will have an opportunity to reflect on their own resilience and explore strategies to build their personal bounce.

Technical Assistance and Distance Learning

Technical Assistance and Distance Learning – The Devereux Center for Resilient Children can offer coaching and/or distance learning sessions on any of our assessment tools and/or topics related to the social and emotional health of young children.   For a listing of the 2016 DCRC National Professional Development Events, see our website athttp://www.centerforresilientchildren.org/dcrc-professional-development/

Please contact Debi Mahler, Director of Professional Development, at dmahler@devereux.org or (610) 574-6141 for more information.