Preparing for pre-service training of members
Abstract
A successful pre-service training or orientation is the key to starting the program year off strong. The following tips from Mosaica's newsletter,Training Briefs, will help AmeriCorps programs prepare members for a successful year of service.Issue
How best to maximize the effectiveness of pre-service training.Action
The following tips, offered by Marilyn Noguera, will help AmeriCorps programs prepare for member pre-service training or orientation.
1. Plan. The better organized you are, the better the orientation will be.
2. Make your orientation outcome-based. Then pick topics and methods that will generate these outcomes. Often, one activity can contribute to several outcomes.
3. Make your pre-service training truly interactive and experiential. That means more than allowing time for a question and answer period. The greater the active participation of the members, the greater the retention.
4. Carefully choose, and thoroughly prepare, your facilitators and presenters. For experts who aren't trainers, use them as "resources," and facilitate the session yourself.
5. Emphasize teamwork.Most participants will be working in teams. Use icebreakers, well-designed small-group activities, special teambuilding activities, and community projects to build team spirit and mutual trust.
6. Model the service ethic.Bring in role models, build on individual eagerness to serve, and have the staff, site supervisors, and other presenters reflect the benefits of service. Talk about service directly and honestly, and communicate realistic expectations.
7. Use participants as resources. Assess their skills as well as their training needs and give them opportunities to teach each other, through cooperative learning groups, other specific peer teaching activities or use them as co-facilitators.
8. Link training with the service assignment. The more relevant the orientation to the actual assignment, the more interesting and useful it will be for members.
9. Monitor, assess, and evaluate. Throughout the session, ask members for feedback, and make immediate refinements. Assess specific activities and the overall session as a basis for change next year. Follow up to see if skills learned are retained and used. Use varied evaluation techniques.
10. Make pre-service training the first step in ongoing learning. Link it to in-service sessions, site-based training, and other knowledge and skill development opportunities.
Context
Mosaica: The Center for Nonprofit Development and Pluralism, provides organizational assessments, strategic and resource development planning, fundraising capacity building, restructuring support, and assistance in financial management and oversight. Other services include board development, program design and delivery, personnel and systems management, volunteer activities, community involvement and community building, community organizing and advocacy, program evaluation, and coalition building.
The goal of Mosaica is to bring together individuals with diverse voices and experience to create an organization with a set of common values. Mosaica was established out of a commitment to social justice and a belief that within the United States and throughout the world, societies that strive for democracy, human rights, peace, individual opportunity, and pluralism must be built and maintained from the bottom up-community by community, group by group-with the active involvement of nonprofit organizations and a strong independent sector. Mosaica helps strengthen nonprofits so they can provide high quality services and advocacy in a sustainable, well-run fashion that supports communities.
Citation
Mosaica's Training Briefs. Washington, D.C.: Corporation for National and Community Service, no. 2, (August 1997).
Training Briefs were produced by Mosaica under Cooperative Agreement #98CADC009 with the Corporation for National and Community Service during July of 1997 through October of 1999.
Posted On
August 28, 2001For More Information
Resources
See Ten Tips for Successful Pre-Service Training for more information as well as an activity to use in pre-service training.Source Documents
Related Practices
Related sites
Starting Strong: A Guide to Pre-Service Training