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Youth-Led Trainings
“Very relevant and great training...[the Youth Network Representative] did a great job of talking about his experience, and beyond his experience, information about culture…With all the conversations about race and culture in our society, his presentation was the best I have seen given, by anyone of any age.”
“Hearing these youth tell their stories is one of the most powerful experiences I have seen in a foster parent training. The foster parents walk away with a realistic idea of what they can do to impact a young person’s life, and with experiences they will never forget.”
Community Trainings
Our trainings are designed to be 2 hours in length and can be modified as needed upon request. The curriculum are developed and facilitated in partnership with young people with lived experience. Each training can be adapted to best suit the needs of a particular audience.
Authentic Partnership with Youth and Young Adults
Learn how to operationalize Mockingbird’s approach to partnering with young people to create systems change. Includes a review of the youth and young adult partnership continuum to help participants identify where their organization falls on the continuum and make goals for change.
Culture of Foster Care
Build understanding and empathy for the experience of being in foster care, and learn to reduce the stigma associated with foster care through interactive activities and facilitator shared reflections. This training also surfaces practices within foster care to be improved.
Stories of Youth Homelessness
Build understanding and empathy for the experience of homelessness, and work to reduce the stigma associated with youth and young adult homelessness through interactive activities and facilitator shared reflections. Training also surfaces practices to be improved.
Tragedy Tourism
Drawing from Mockingbird's 20 years of experience, this training gives professionals practical tools to partner with young people and folks with lived experience to ask questions and support their story telling/expertise-sharing in a humane way that prevents retraumatization and tradgedy tourism.
Storytelling for Advocacy
This training prepares participants to use their personal experiences for systems change, by helping them to identify their goals, strategically share in a way appropriate to the audience, practice storytelling, and receive feedback.
Supporting Students
Tailored for professionals working with students to help them understand the particular needs of students who have experienced foster care or homelessness. This training includes exercises to help develop skills in empathy, conversation, and support in working with students that have experienced trauma, and clearly outlines some best practices and approaches to avoid.
Trans 101
This introductory training will help participants work more sensitively with trans people. It reviews pronouns, the difference between gender and sexual identities, and builds empathy to the daily experience of trans folks though interactive activities.
Transitions
Tailored for service providers, this training identifies the difference between changes (the actual event in time) and transitions (an emotional process that results from change and isn’t complete until a person has gone through each of its three stages) and gives participants tools to help their clients navigate transitions with more ease, including recognizing the emotional markers of each stage.