Training Class Details
Class Title: RESCHEDULED: The Stories We Tell at Work: Building Sustainability for Foster Youth Providers
Class Date: Tuesday, July 30, 2024
Class Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Availability: Employees and Eligible Participants
Available spaces: 31
Class Location: Webinar - refer to the class description section for more information about how to participate.
[ Online ]
[ Online ], CA 94618
Class Trainers: Michael Mertz
Class Description:

The Stories We Tell at Work: Building Sustainability for Foster Youth Providers

Presented By Mike Mertz

 

This training is designed to assist professionals working with foster youth to connect to stories of themselves within the work that are fulfilling and sustaining.  Because this work requires us to spend time in situations that tend to deplete us or contribute to ‘burnout’, it is vital that we are able to engage with versions of ourselves that demonstrate the ways that we stay connected to what we give value to. Participants will discuss some of the ideas that frame what stories are available to be told and to find ways to challenge these ideas in order to discover alternative stories. A particular story about a professional in the field will be shared as a possible way to invite stories that are sustaining of us.

 

Class Objectives

Participants will

  • Identify seven ethics/ideas that shape what stories we tell about ourselves
  • Learn and be able to apply a particular conversational map designed to invite stories that are sustaining
  • Learn and apply a conversational map related to how professionals grow from their connections with clients.

 

How can participants utilize their new skills and knowledge after the training to reinforce their learning?

  •  Participants will be able to notice when they, co-workers, or clients are stuck in negative stories about themselves.
  •  Participants will have a ‘map’ of possible questions to ask in order to bring forth alternative stories.

 

Trainer Bio

 

MIKE MERTZ is the Director of Permanency and Family Engagement as well as a National Family Finding and Engagement Trainer with Seneca Family of Agencies. He also helped create and co-leads Seneca Family of Agencies Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative and advisory board. He currently coaches staff and trains providers nationwide on the Family Finding model as well as other family engagement strategies that foster collaborative endeavors for building lifetime support networks for children and youth.

 

In addition to Mike’s vast training and coaching experience, he has over 33 years of experience leading and managing both residential and community based programs engaged in promoting the voice of youth and families. Mike’s work focuses on creating connectedness, building permanency, developing positive outcomes, and increasing the quantity and quality of engagement of organizations with the youth and families they serve.





IMPORTANT


You must work with dependent (foster& probation) youth in Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, or Monterey County in order to attend our trainings. Trainings are free for those eligible to attend.