The Beginnings Guides are part of a complete curriculum for home visitors serving disadvantaged families during pregnancy and early parenting. The curriculum authors are available to present on-site training and to train-the-trainer for your site or system.

In addition to content and materials, the Beginnings Guides Implementation Training Curriculum includes the Beginnings Home Visitors Handbook, cutting edge practice tools, teaching and supervision strategies, evaluation methods and instruments, and a database that converts your program data to reports for your funders and other stakeholders. This section describes training required for use of the full curriculum.

Beginnings Guides Implementation Training

What is the Beginnings Guides Implementation Training?
Home visitors need to be adept life skills developers because children’s development and your program outcomes depend on mothers’ life skills — personal capacities and attributes needed for lifelong learning, health and development. The Beginnings Guides Implementation Training is an on-site one-day (8 hours) interactive intensive for home visitors and their supervisors on effective, efficient use of the Beginnings Guides curriculum. Focus is on supporting parents’ development of reflective skills and health literacy skills. At completion, participants confident using the Beginnings Guides and ready to begin prioritizing and implementing the  practice tools and teaching strategies. (view training curriculum)

Why promote life skills?
Life skills development is essential to both parents and programs since a mother’s life skills determine her capacity to nurture a healthy competent child and her capacity to benefit from your program, community services and healthcare.

What does the training cover?
The Beginnings Guides Implementation Training covers:

• Reflective Functioning: theory and practices for promoting skills parents need to nurture a healthy competent child
• Health Literacy: theory and practices for promoting skills parents need to benefit from your program, healthcare, and community services. Includes a 1-minute method to identify parents at high risk for low literacy and refer to literacy enhancing community services. How to teach clients with low literacy skills
• TED*  The Empowerment Dynamic:  How to escape the dreaded drama triangle and empower parents
• Teaching & coaching with the Beginnings Guides
• Visit planning and responsive teaching using the Topic Index and Teaching Documentation Log
• Teaching by asking: Using curriculum-linked Reflective Questions. Developing reflective questioning skills
• Using Reflective Drawings & Coloring Conversations: a right-brain method for conveying key messages without words. Especially useful for clients with limited literacy skills

This training is best combined with the LSP Training on using the Life Skills Progression instrument for data collection, reflective supervision, intervention planning and program evaluation.

What are the training objectives? At completion of this training, participants will have:

• Explored mothers’ role in achieving your program goals
• Become confident using Beginnings materials
• Prepared to begin implementing the practice tools to build relationships, teach responsively, and promote mothers’ life skills for pregnancy, parenting, and learning.
• Practiced using scripted Reflective Questions to help a mother Think, Link &  Respond
• Practiced planning reflective questions for a particular situation
• Explored the links between literacy skills, maternal child health and program outcomes
• Practiced promoting mothers’ literacy skills and the foundations for child’s emerging literacy and school readiness
• Experienced the power of Coloring Conversations to introduce a comfortable, intimate thinking and sharing quality to their visit and to encourage a mother to imagine her positive future

The Beginnings Guides Implementation Training can also include modules in which participants:

• Complete and score the Life Skills Progression Instrument to see a ‘snapshot’ of mother’s and child’s strengths, needs and progress
• Participate in reflective supervision to review family progress, plan an intervention and review results of their work.

Where & when is the training held?
The training is held at your site on a date that is mutually convenient for you and the trainer(s). Typically the training starts at 8 and completes by 5 with an hour for lunch.

Who should participate?
Home visitors, case managers, family support specialists, family assessment specialists, care coordinators, supervisors, program directors, data managers, and grants managers should participate. Consider inviting partner organizations, referral relationships and other programs serving your clients. 

How many can attend a training?
Idea: 15-21   Maximum: 39  Groups of more than 21 require two trainers and may incur additional materials fees.

Is this training required to use the Beginnings Guides?
No. You can use the Beginnings Guides without formal training. The Beginnings Guides Users Manual provides basic guidance for use of the materials. You can download it from the Order Page. The Beginnings Guides Implementation Training is required to use curriculum-linked Reflective Questions & Worksheets, Reflective Questions Planner, curriculum-linked Reflective Drawings & Coloring Conversations, the ELF Health Literacy Screening & Referral Method, and other teaching strategies and practice tools that enhance program effectiveness.

What do participants say about the training?

"This was really new and interesting info – Not the same old, same old. "

"… bold and different "

"Most useful features: 

• To let clients tell you what they need
• The ease and applicability of the Beginnings curriculum
• The Home Visitors Handbook "

"The presenters understood our program "

"Open discussion. New vision. New tools to work with families "

"Great materials! "

"Very professional informed presenters "

"I liked most emphasis on giving the 'mom' control "

"Everything was useful to me "

"We’ve heard all about how we are supposed to be on visits. This training makes it all real and doable. "

What is the cost of the training?
Beginnings Guides Implementation Training ………………………………………………… $2750

Includes:

• Trainer fee
• Beginnings Guides Home Visitors Handbook for each participant
• Training materials masters to be photocopied for each participant
• Reflective Practice CD containing files for reproduction of (Reflective Question Worksheets, Reflective Drawings, Topic Indexes, Teaching Documentation Logs, LSP and all LSP forms

Does not include:

• Facilities
• Refreshments
• Travel expenses   - We prefer to negotiate a flat fee for expenses based on your location and schedule.

How do we schedule training?
To discuss or plan a Beginnings Guides Implementation Training  call Sandra Smith, MPH, PhD 800-444-8806 or email sandras@beginningsguides.net

         
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