Replication Manual Section III. Workshop Process

Workshop Process Information

Program Administration

The host agency must have substantial commitment to the project from upper-level administration and from directly involved project staff. This will include commitment of in-kind resources. The DTBY project should be treated on parallel with all other agency activities and included as a topic in staff meetings. The host agency will provide sufficient offices space for project staff to operate including common work space and meeting facilities and offices with telephones and storage space.

If staff are located primarily off site, regularly established on site work times and/or meeting times need to be established in addition to the pre-workshop meetings described elsewhere. This should happen at least monthly in the first year that a team is working together.

Participant Profile

Each workshop group should represent a range of risk factors to prevent stigmatization and provide a range of viewpoints. Ideally this breaks down into the following profile: 5-10% of participants with 0-1 risk factors, 80-90% with 2-7 risk factors and 5-10% with 8 or more risk factors. This should be considered in recruiting participants as well, for example, agencies that work with families who have many risk factors or even school counselors will likely be referring these families. Be sure to have a plan to reach families in the broader public that may not be served by these agencies, for example at sporting events, parent-teacher events, etc.

For the sites implementing family workshops, each target youth must participate with an adult family member who contributes significantly to the youth’s supervision or a person primarily involved in raising the child such as a foster parent.

Workshop Facilities

For sites using workshop space that are not part of their own facility, a contract or commitment with that facility needs to be made for regular access for three to four month intervals that coincide with 12 sessions. The site should have tables; chairs; electricity; an area for meal set-up, eating and clean-up; and access to bathrooms. In addition, it is may be important to have identified and negotiated with a back up facility.

The family workshops require one large room for joint activities for 10-20 adult participants and 20-40 youth and children. The site also will need two to three small rooms as break out rooms for parents, youth and siblings. The site should have a facility for food preparation or at least access to a usable sink for set up and clean up after a meal and either a separate space for communal eating or permission to use the large meeting room.

For the youth classes, one adequate space will be sufficient. The need for a kitchen facility will depend on whether sites are serving a light meal or a snack.

Workshop Preplanning Considerations

The following worksheet is useful in clearly outlining staff roles and responsibilities when preparing for each workshops:

Workshop Planning Worksheet

One staff member, usually the parent facilitator, needs to be in charge of contacting parents to remind them of the first meeting and any changes in the regular schedule. Also if a family is absent one night, a follow up call or contact should be made.

It is important for team members to develop a safety plan for emergency situations and that cell phone or other emergency telephone access is available for trainers. There should be access to a first aid kit and all staff should know where it is. Know building evacuation routes and have classroom shutdown procedures in place in case of threatening circumstances.

Establishing a Non-judgmental, Welcoming Atmosphere

A huge part of the DTBY philosophy is creating a non-judgmental, warm environment that feels welcoming and supportive of many different kinds of people. There are several key things, listed below, that staff can do to enhance the likelihood of this happening, starting the very first night of the workshop.

As families arrive, have a staff person assigned to greet them. They can be directed to fill in the sign-in form and invited to serve themselves dinner. Some sites may elect to set up a process for serving food on the first meal to alleviate later issues of someone taking too much, etc. Name tags will be made the first session. Parents will need to fill out the medical information form for younger siblings. These will be filed by the sibling program facilitator.

Workshop Structure

Here is a general outline of the requirements for conducting both the family and youth only workshops.
1. Groups meet for 11 2 hour sessions, There is an additional ½ hour allowance if a meal is served, shorter if an after school snack is served.
2. Groups span 10-12 weeks. (There may be a doubling up for two weeks if nessessary)
3. Groups meet once a week.
4. Groups meet at the same day and time each week.
5. Participants are encouraged to sit together during meals and care is taken that cliques do not form and a supportive network is encouraged. The staff may use a randomized family seating scheme if they wish to avoid cliques.
6. Program staff assist with serving and participate in the meal and sit randomly with families. Staff should not be all seated at one table, but take care to sit with a new family each week during the meal.
7. A formal policy is established and communicated during the first session that parents are responsible for their children’s supervision until the program formally starts. Staff may offer to take youth to do activities but that should not be the parent’s expectation.
8. Staff do not directly challenge a parent’s strongly held position or view about any particular topic (e.g, a parent that truly believes in spanking). Rather, they build on establishing alternatives, improving household management techniques, and demonstrating the impact of different discipline strategies on long term resiliency to problem behaviors.
9. The facilitators involve participants in learning experiences that enhance personal efficacy. They do not offer solutions to problems that participants bring, but provide information to participants in an educational setting and opportunities for parents to learn to find useful solutions themselves (thus building efficacy beliefs in the parents).
10. Set up the activity room so that chairs are in a circle. Some activities will be done in small groups or at a table, but set the room up in a way that includes everyone and so that no one can “hide” in a back row.
11. Program staff will make clear to the participants that 20 hours of classroom participation (which does not include the meal) is required to earn the stipend. Staff will also make sure that participants understand how those hours are calculated by the sign-in sheet. The program is designed so that participants can miss one class and still earn their 20 hours.
12. Program staff must be available to schedule one additional make-up session if there have been emergency or health reasons for not attending.
13. A program introduction will be given the first night of class to all participants so that they understand the nature and philosophy of the program. Housekeeping information can be given at this time, eg, where the bathrooms are located, etc.
14. Parents of the youth in the youth program will be invited to the first youth only session – for signing consent forms and learning more information about the program while their youth take the surveys.

Staff Training

All staff should complete the required training (this is a 30 hour training) before they start on the first night. They should be trained in program curriculum, DTBY philosophy and the importance of setting up a non-judgmental environment and how they can accomplish this. They must also receive training in the workshop process, process evaluation, and the outcome evaluation.

It is important that staff has CPR or other emergency first aid training, understands manditory reporting procedures and statuatory rape definitions in their state. This training should be done separately from the CARE to Wait Start up training by the sponsoring agency.

Staff Meetings

Two weeks prior to the workshop start date the entire team should meet and fill out the Team Roles and Responsibilities for Workshops form and assign the various tasks listed. This will help make clear who is responsible for the many small details that go into a successful workshop.

Meetings with all team members should occur every week before the workshops. The parent and youth facilitators, along with the sibling’s coordinator should be present. This is a time to prepare for the upcoming workshops. An hour before the workshops start is a good time for the whole team to meet again as this will be a time that the teen facilitators can be available and know what is expected of them. We usually start with Success Sharing and then discuss how the evening should go. The team can assign tasks related to set up and meal preparation, clean up and the evening activities.

Workshop Process Evaluation

The parent and youth facilitators will be responsible for filling out the Workshop Log Sheets. These will be sent biweekly to Gloria Balfour at 215 N. Linden Street, Cortez, CO 81321. This will always include a copy of the sign in sheet for that session. This is an important tool for both process and evaluation outcomes so facilitators should always note classroom environment issues, comments on the different activities and any indication that participants are starting to use the skills. This document is how fidelity is determined and it is very important, if activities are altered from the curriculum, to document the alterations and the reason for the alterations on this document.

A sign in/time sheet for parents and children is used at every workshop. Participants put down the time they arrive upon signing in. Family members may not sign in for a person who has not yet arrived. One staff person will be responsible for making sure the sign in sheet is completed correctly and attached to the workshop logistic sheet. It is also the responsibility of that staff member to make a note on the sign in sheet if participants leave early. This is how the participant hours are tracked and if they need make-up opportunities.

The parent facilitator can give the parents an attendance "notice" around class number seven of the workshops series to let people know how many hours they have and how many may need to be made up. In the youth only workshops, the facilitator can give this information to parents about their teen’s attendance.

The six month follow up survey also has questions for participants on how the workshops went. Generic feedback on these confidential surveys will be provided back to the facilitators.

Here are the forms for this section:

Sign In Sheet

Family Program Parent and Youth Facilitator Logsheet

Youth Only Facilitator Logsheet