The Children's Aid Society

Training Workshops

Our Commitment to Training
As part of The Children’s Aid Society’s mission to ensure the physical and emotional well being of our children and families, we offer a series of workshops to regustered volunteers to help inform, educate, and help prepare them to accomplish the goals and objectives of the CAS academic and mentoring programs. Here is a small sample of some of the topics we offer:

Critical Issues: Child abuse, suicide, gangs, and drug abuse are some of the critical issues youth face today. While most of the youth we work with may not be directly impacted by these issues, we do know that these issues often affect their neighborhoods, schools and friends. Therefore, this training will arm volunteers with information about each of the critical issues to help them be an informed support to their mentees. Participants will also have an opportunity to understand the steps to take and to practice responses and interventions that can be used with a youth going through a critical time.

Cultural Diversity: This training will assist volunteers in cultivating awareness of the many levels of diversity that exist between their mentees and themselves, and to explore how those levels of diversity affect the mentor/mentee match. It will also provide the opportunity for volunteers to explore their own assumptions and stereotypes and have a forum to express their feelings on diversity of values and cultural backgrounds, as well as cross-cultural matching. This training wraps up with concrete tools mentors can use when faced with a situation involving values or diversity in the match relationship.

Mentoring 101: In this introduction to mentoring training session, participants will explore the multiple dimensions of the role of a volunteer within the mentoring context and the areas that fall outside that role. This training will also provide an opportunity for volunteers to gain an understanding of relationship building, including effective communication techniques, and the match life cycle for a volunteer and his/her mentee to help them understand what to expect in their match relationship.

Promoting Healthy Relationships: Unhealthy relationships are a growing problem amongst our youth. In this training, participants will learn the latest trends with youth in abusive relationships and the scope of the problem. Participants will also have an opportunity to gain the skills to identify teen dating violence in youth and to prevent dating violence and intervene if it is already happening with the youth they work with.

A Mentor's Tool Box: In this session, mentors will bolster their mentoring skills as they learn of specific tools and techniques. This tool box includes exploring boundaries and setting limits, dealing with challenging behaviors, and managing conflict. Other concrete tools include advanced communication tips, modeling and creating learning moments, and how to successfully engage in a difficult conversation. This training is perfect for the mentor who wants to take his/her mentoring relationship to the next level.