P&P February 2016

association news

NSDTA’s Annual Conference Ascends to Excellence

Agencies that sponsor their people do so as an investment in growing their agencies. While there is a cost, scholar- ships are available to participants. The Joan M. Carerra scholarship sponsored conference registration and travel for 20 participants representing 18 states. The Colorado Department of Human Services provided scholarships for an additional 40 participants. Conference sponsors included Accenture, Northwoods, the Butler Institute for Families, the Child Welfare Information Gateway, and the Colorado Department of Human Services. Their sponsorship showed their investment in supporting and growing human service agencies to improve outcomes. Award Presentations NSDTA recognizes outstanding indi- viduals and organizations who have made significant contributions to the field. Award winners for 2015 were: Sheila Blanton, recipient of the Distinguished Service in Training Award . Blanton, director of the Professional Excellence program at Georgia University, exempli- fies the name of the program she directs—professional excellence. She continually strives to improve her training programs by seeking out the best ideas, latest technologies, and most outstanding people to present them. Blanton has been involved in educa- tion and training for 36 years. She has been on the forefront of using distance- based technologies to supplement and enhance training programs for child welfare staff throughout the state of Georgia. As a manager, she has inspired allegiance and loyalty from her staff while encouraging them to innovate and adapt to a constant state of change. Inspiring collegiality and sharing of products and information, she deserves this award for her long and very distin- guished career in training. Her efforts have elevated the field for us all.

Paul Needham, recipient of the President’s Award . Needham recently retired from his position at the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. In demand across the country, he is taking his own special brand of training skills and sharing them with a new generation of adult services workers. Needham is a master at the art of training. He specializes in preparing new trainers with his workshop, “Essential Training for New Trainers” and, for the technology- impaired, trains them about how to use technology for training. In his quiet way, he reminds us that great trainers are made of hard work, patience, practice, and diligence. He keeps us grounded in who we are and who we, as an organization, serve. Maine Direct Service Worker Training Program, recipient of the Quality Service Award . The Maine Direct Service Worker Training Program transformed its training system by updating existing curricula to new competency-based stan- dards; improving statewide access to training; increasing the supply and mobility of workers across settings, service populations, and programs; optimizing the use of training resources across programs; and estab- lishing a comprehensive system of career progression with specializa- tion and cross-training to respond to a range of complex and changing medical and supportive needs. We applaud their efforts to set the bar higher for all training programs. Next year’s conference will be held on October 2–5 in New Brunswick, NJ. If you are interested in submitting a proposal for a workshop or would like more information about spon- sorship or scholarship options, please don’t hesitate to contact Emily Campbell, Organizational Effectiveness director and NSDTA liaison, at ecampbell@aphsa.org.

The National Staff Development and Training Association (NSDTA) assembled for its 2015 conference in Denver, CO, on October 3–7. More than 280 people gathered from 34 states and two U.S. territories. Their position titles ranged from county director to chief learning officer to trainer. They came to the conference to learn the best practices related to organizational effectiveness, staff development, evalu- ation, and distance learning. Most important, they forged relationships and connections that will be parlayed to exponentially improve their agencies and outcomes back at home. Michelle Naples, Strategic Initiatives director at the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services said, “My organization benefits from the enthu- siasm, knowledge, resources, contacts, and ideas that I brought back with me. I now have an expanded network of people and organizations to connect and share ideas with as we work to improve training and organizational effectiveness.” Conference participants were enthralled by the keynote speaker, Beth Cohen, and her talk about The Neuroscience of Learning, The Power of Training and Development . Other workshops included The Workforce Development Framework as a Tool for Growing and Retaining Competent Staff, Organizational Climate and Casework Practice, Evidence-Based Curriculum Design and Development, and Excellence in Evaluation, to name just a few of the more than 40 sessions available to participants. The conference closed with a keynote presentation by Greg Sommers, Sharing the Peak Experience, that challenged participants to go back to their agencies and elevate them using all that they had learned and the connections they had made.

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