More Collaboration Profiles

Lesson Learned

  • Reaching more youth workers and educators requires expansion of the WYDPLS to year-round programming. The WYDPLS is a valuable community resource that is ripe for scale — to date, the WYDPLS has only provided training for one week in the summer but many more youth workers and school day teachers would participate in training were offered year-round. Starting Fall 2019, the WYDPLS will offer the “Urban Education Edition,” a Saturday training program to enable youth workers and educators to access free, trauma-informed professional development opportunities. This shift will enable more partners in the WYDPLS to both provide and participate in the training.
  • To effectively transform the training landscape in Worcester, in-person training is necessary but not sufficient. The WYDPLS was originally formed to improve the landscape of professional development for youth work and it has done so through the summer symposium strategy. Three years into the work partners have realized and agreed to expanding the WYDPLS beyond training to include on-line resource for training and professional development that will include training materials, workshop descriptions, and a database of area trainers.