We hope you’ll be as inspired as we are by YLAI Network member Jodi B.’s initiative and commitment to empowering and uplifting those around her and the people in her community!
When she saw the YLAI Network’s online courses, YLAI Network member Jodi B. immediately thought of her coworkers.
Jodi has been a part of the small staff at Gore Developments Ltd. in Jamaica for a few years. And when #YLAIEmpowers Communities invited YLAI Network members to arrange an event in their own communities, she knew exactly what she wanted to do: “When I saw the courses I immediately thought of my coworkers and decided to approach them for YLAI Empowers Communities.”
Jodi coordinated a professional development workshop for her coworkers with the YLAI Network’s online course “Strategies for Personal Growth”, overcoming a few challenges and creating a space for learning and empowerment.
“My advice is to plan early. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. As soon as you decide on a date and time for the workshop, start organizing right away.”
For any other YLAI Network members thinking about organizing a similar workshop, Jodi suggests following a series of simple steps based on her experience:
Review the course material.
Decide on a date and time for the workshop.
Seek approval to invite people to the workshop, if you need to: “I wrote to the Project Manager seeking approval to engage the staff in the training and to use a space for same. I outlined the reason for the training and how it would benefit the staff, the organization and the community.”
Invite people to participate in the workshop: “Upon receiving the approval of the Manager, I invited all the staff to participate in the workshop with a brief description of what the workshop is about. In addition, I gave them a deadline to confirm their attendance.”
Keep a list of confirmations and follow-up: “By the date of the deadline, I recorded the names of all who confirmed and called those who did not just to make sure they did not forget. I counted the number of names on the list in order to know the total number of persons attending.”
Confirm your arrangements with the location for the event: “I informed Management of the number of persons attending and acquired the permission to use the relevant space for same. This room already had a tv monitor so all I had to do was to connect my laptop computer to the monitor.”
Set-up ahead of time, if you can: “The day before the workshop I set up tables and chairs in the space with the assistance of one of the workers.”
Host your workshop! “On the day of the workshop, I set up my computer to the tv monitor. Went to YLAI website and found the courses to display.”
Be welcoming and provide some background information so people understand the reason for the workshop: “I welcomed everyone to the workshop, a brief reminder of what the workshop is about and then begin the lectures.”
Check that the information was useful to people using the online course quiz: “At the end of the course, I had each person take the test on my computer and saved the certificates to a folder.”
Make sure you have a way to print the certificates: We took a break while I quickly printed the certificates with a mobile printer.
Celebrate everyone’s accomplishments! After the break each person were presented with their certificates for successfully completing the course.
Some questions Jodi suggests to help you plan are:
Which organization will you approach?
How many persons do you anticipate to attend?
How will you deliver the online course and what will you need to deliver it?
How will you test the participants?
How and when will they receive the certificates?
“I found the YLAI Empowers Community Toolkit to be very helpful. It taught me the many ways I could participate and how to do it. It had a very clear outline and it was easy to follow.”