Academy Partners, 

Our work is growing and changing and our team is innovating and evolving so we can keep pace! We are working to increase the number of external service providers that deliver our services. Approximately 75% of our classroom training, coaching, simulations, and curriculum development are done by external service providers and as the needs of our region have grown we have been working diligently to increase capacity. We have an upcoming informational webinar for potential service providers and will have a series of training for trainer opportunities to help newer folks build skills. If you know of anyone who is interested in coming on board to partner with us in this way, please share our website with them so they can learn more about applying. 

In addition to building capacity in our region for strong facilitation of our services, we are also exploring ways to evolve our model of service delivery. Our team has been assessing the changes we put in place over the past few years in response to extenuating circumstances, like the pandemic, and the need for virtual delivery. We are reflecting on lessons learned, what changes were put in place that make sense to keep and which ones we can let go of, and how we can continue innovating our model and services. 

We are in process of working on an amendment to our CDSS contract to add one time funds that have been allocated for workforce development services to be delivered by Regional Training Academies. Fourteen million dollars was allocated over the course of two fiscal years to support additional services. Some of the services and products we are planning to develop and deliver include the following (keep in mind that some of these are contingent upon funds becoming available for ongoing work next fiscal year): 

• Development of up to 12 new classes 
• A model for engaging folks with lived experience in a series of development opportunities to help them build curriculum writing, facilitation, training and coaching skills so they can deliver workforce development services on behalf of our organization and support best practice and skill development in our region
• Quality supervision simulation and related coaching to enhance supervisory practice and skills
• Emerging Leadership program which will be geared toward developing skills in senior level social workers (those who are beyond the initial learning phases after coming out of line worker core but are not yet supervisors)
• Culturally Responsive Practice skill development for social workers and supervisors

Lastly, we recently sent out a survey to all of our service providers to gather feedback about our partnership and areas of expertise that they possess. These survey responses will allow us to match projects with subject matter experts. 

I am so grateful for your partnership as we provide services that transform hearts, minds and practice! 

Dawn