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Interviewer: That is a great point. Listening to you makes me want
to come there and participate in your staff development plan! I know
that you all have used some other resources as you got some different
resources. What are some of the other things that you have tried for
staff development?
Nancy Brooks-Lane: Two of the very powerful resources had to do with
consultants that we were able to bring in. Let me back up and just
put this in perspective.
Interviewer: That would be great.
Nancy Brooks-Lane: We did the internal training that was not expensive
at all, but was very powerful and effective. From that process, we
judged the effectiveness of this in terms of our training, by the
outcomes that the staff obtained. We did see the staff have some wonderful
outcomes, so we were trying to find a place nationally to connect
with. We did that through Project Employ, as a result we were able
to apply for grants. We have something to offer in terms of being
able to apply for grants. So being able to bring the consultants in,
resulted in us applying for some grants, we had additional resources.
That was Cary Griffin and Dave Hammis and I can not speak strongly
enough on how effective they have been in working with our staff and
moving our system forward. That was really key.
As well as the online Job Coach Service Vocation Training through
the University of Georgia. That has been so helpful to staff as well,
and the good thing is as management level staff, you can tap into
where people are with that and support the staff if it looks like
somebody is struggling with something, “Are they having enough
time to get their coursework done? Is there something I might do to
support their efforts?” But all the folks graduated. We are
in our third round of folks going through the training and it has
been very significant in terms of staff developing skills that they
need. Of course it is ego boosting in that they have an actual certificate
from a university showing that they have attained this skill.
Interviewer:There may be some people wondering if online instruction
was valuable and if you could speak to that for just a minute it would
be great.
Nancy Brooks-Lane: It is very valuable. I think it is a modern way
of learning. We have a computer lab so that the staff are able to
self-regulate their day and figure out a time when they can get into
the lab to work on their study. In this day and age when there are
so many facets to a person's life; family, career and just trying
again, to have a life beyond your job; that has offered the flexibility
that folks really need. They do not get so stressed out and try to
fit everything within this compact period of time. It is available
weekends, nights, and during scheduled work hours. It just offers,
I think again as I said, a more modern way of learning.
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