Training and Workshops

Staff training directly relates to program quality.

Programs play a large role in helping immigrant and refugee families settle into their new country, and the better prepared the caregivers are to provide a positive and welcoming environment, the better the experience for newcomer families.

As experts in the field of care for newcomer children, CMAS designs and develops training programs for the child care sector to improve caregiver skills in working with immigrant families. We have delivered thought provoking and learner based workshops to over 100 programs, covering a range of topics that increase staff’s ability to serve newcomers, including:

  • Inclusion 101
  • Creating A Multicultural Environment
  • Language Rich Play
  • Child Abuse: Prevention And Intervention
  • Anaphylaxis: Responding To Life Threatening Allergies

Have an idea in mind for a specific training? We make it easy to turn your ideas into real learning and professional development. CMAS can leverage your existing content—whether it is old trainings you developed or manuals and procedures—and improve or modernize it, so that it better meets your current needs. We can also help you develop new content. When the necessity for professional development in a given subject is identified, CMAS puts together a custom team of experts to research the topic, create a presentation and accompanying resources, and then coach group members to provide the training.

Training can be done in a workshop format or, if you need to reach a wide, geographically diverse audience, CMAS has the capability to create custom online training courses.

CMAS Experience in Action: Making Workshops Work

When budgets tighten, professional development is often one of the first areas to be cut! Despite its critical role in building caregiver knowledge and skills, this is exactly what was happening in many newcomer child care programs. Caregivers were requesting more workshops, but organizations did not have the financial resources available to replace staff so they could attend training during the day.

To address this challenge, CMAS developed a plan to offer training after work hours. A single, central location was chosen for each region, allowing for consistency and simple access. A series of workshops were scheduled throughout the year, on subjects ranging from creating a multicultural and inclusive program, to health and safety issues as they affect newcomer children.

Part of the rollout included development of a promotional plan, including flyers and e-blasts. An invitation, online registration system, and web-based training calendar were created to give caregivers the ability to plan their training schedules ahead of time.

For those organizations that could still not access the workshops, such as those in remote locations, CMAS started to develop our online training courses.

The flexibility of these highly rated workshops helped increase the knowledge and skill level of hundreds of participants, ultimately resulting in higher quality programs and better managed risks.

 
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