Duration: 6 hours

A service philosophy is more than a mission statement. The content must guide practice and provide clear vision for the service. That means that it contains information that is specific enough to guide the day-to-day decisions made by staff and management in meeting children’s developmental needs. This workshop will challenge participants to reflect on their service philosophy and guide them through a process to critically appraise how their values, beliefs and attitudes about children and families influence interactions, relationships, practices, policies, procedures, and experiences.

Duration: 5 hours

Through hands-on interactive experiences participants will understand that the environment provides the foundation for the delivery of high quality, developmentally appropriate programs for children. Comfortable, inviting places and spaces are necessary for healthy learning and development to occur, without a sense of comfort it is very difficult for adults and children to benefit from the experience. Participants will learn how to create environments that foster learning and success.

Duration: 6 hours

Administrators must ensure there is sufficient, knowledgeable, caring, and qualified staff to provide quality experiences for children in their care. Recruiting staff is a major responsibility and is often challenging. This highly interactive workshop will engage participants in the review of current recruitment practices and explore innovative proven strategies to "Hire Right the First Time". Participants will learn how to; assess their training needs, conduct effective interviews and orient new staff members.  

Duration: 5 hours

Creating a positive work environment takes trust, faith, teamwork and courage to move things forward. In order for teams to be successful, the leader and individual team members must know their respective roles. This workshop will enable participants to share ideas and explore strategies that foster positive work environments. Participants will have the opportunity to identify their own personal skill inventory and how this translates into effective leadership.

Duration: 6 hours

What makes a great leader? A leader is many things to many people. Leaders have vision. They look beyond the here and now to see the vast potential for their organizations and the people within them. Leaders recognize the value of employees and their critical importance to achieving the organizations goals. This workshop leads participants through hands-on interactive activities to recognize and enhance their leadership skills.

Duration: 2 hours

Empowerment is a great morale booster and motivator. Directors who empower their teams share responsibility and demonstrate trust. This interactive workshop looks at strategies that enable Directors to acknowledge the special skills and talents employees bring to the table and how to foster a culture of empowerment in your organization. 

Duration: 5 hours

"Professionalism" where it all starts. This workshop looks at professionalism within the early learning and child care team. It further offers participants the opportunity to assess their own organizational and professional development needs, evaluate opportunities, support staff development and explore ways to get there.

Duration: 3 – 6 hours (funded for CDS only)

Coaching is an interactive process that helps individuals and organizations produce more satisfying results. As a result of coaching, employees set better goals, take more action, make better decisions, and more fully use their natural strengths and skills.

Coach for Success; Basically Speaking explores peer / peer and supervisor coaching strategies in an early learning setting. Facilitators will discuss the benefits of coaching, provide opportunities for reflective practice, and introduce the steps to effective coaching. Through hands-on activities participants will develop the skills to use coaching tools for observation, assessment and the development of outcome based action plans. 

Duration: 6 hours

Child care centres and out-of-school care programs operate on tight budgets. Projecting income for a program budget must take into account past trends as well as future changes. Program directors and administrators need to at the very least understand the basics of budgeting and accounting. This workshop will engage participants in meaningful activities where they will develop and work through an operational budget and explore strategies for the continued financial health of a program.

Duration: 5 hours

Maximizing experiences for children and families requires healthy, collaborative partnerships between all stakeholders. This workshop not only shares proven techniques for engaging parents, families and community it will guide participants through a process of how to open channels of communication and facilitate the development of tools to create a family/community friendly environment.

Duration: 6 hours

Governance policies and procedures of an organization provide direction to the staff and lay the foundation for the services provided to children and families. This workshop will guide participants through the development and implementation of effective policies and procedures resulting in better overall outcomes for children, families and staff.

Duration: 5 hours

Ensuring safe and healthy environments for children requires vigilance and responsiveness. Both depend on appropriate staff development, monitoring, risk assessment, drills and writing policy and action plans to prevent potential risks. This workshop will provide participants with useful tools and guide them through the process of policy development and procedural assessment.

Duration: 2-3 hours

Why do educators dread change? This workshop explores our fear around change and how we can embrace it so that it benefits our classrooms, overall program and the children we care for.

Facilitators will lead participants in the discussion to create an awareness and understanding of why change is necessary and how it can happen rapidly. Participants will train to use tools that reflect on their personal beliefs around change and determine how best to embrace the leader within to improve everyday situations as well as help in attaining long term program goals.