There are so many free and public training and education opportunities happening in the area, it can be impossible to keep up. This post highlights just a few upcoming opportunities in the area and/or related to local government. Topics cover tutoring, tutor training, black birthing know your rights workshop, Open Meetings Act and FOIA training, court stenography, trauma, women's shelter volunteers, and "pushout."
Project READ at Parkland College has free classes coming up for adults to get tutoring in reading, English as a second language, and math. It also offers introductory training and has upcoming classes for volunteer tutors:
Project READ provides free tutoring to adult learners who seek to improve their basic reading, writing, math, and English skills. This program is made possible by volunteers who give their time to improve the quality of life for hundreds of people in our community.More links and information at the Project READ website here. Additional information for those interested in becoming a tutor for the program and taking advantage of the introductory tutoring course available here.
Together, we have provided support to adult learners in District 505 since 1984. Our office is housed in the Adult Education building at Parkland College in Champaign.
"Know Your Rights workshop" on Black Birthing. Smile Politely highlighted an educational event addressing the higher mortality rate for black maternity and birthing health. The program offers to educate participants on their rights to promote greater self-advocacy and safety against current systemic shortcomings. From the Smile Politely blurb:
On February 29th and March 7th, from 2-4 p.m. at Douglass Branch Library, Tafi Brown and Isis Rose are hosting Champaign-Urbana's first ever "Know Your Rights" workshop for black birthing people. This workshop will prepare families for hospital birth by addressing racial disparities in maternal health, emphasizing consumer rights, and teaching tools for self-advocacy during pregnancy, labor, and birth.Full blurb available here. The event's website with additional information is available here.
On February 29th, Chicago-based birth professionals Jeanine Logan and Shaquan Dupart of Birthworker Baes podcast will co-facilitate the workshop sharing their expertise in midwifery, herbalism, breastfeeding, and more. If you are a person of childbearing age, currently pregnant, or simply interested in black maternal health this event is for you. This event is free and open to the public. Parents with babies and small children are encouraged to attend!
OMA/FOIA: The Illinois Attorney General's website has a couple free training modules intended for public employees who need to understand the Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act rules. The training, however, is also free to the public as well here. For folks interesting in learning more about the rules of public meetings or how to request information from public bodies using FOIA requests, it's a very useful tool.
Court Stenography: For anyone interested in becoming a Court Reporter, there are local training opportunities coming up next month at the Champaign Public Library. In a News-Gazette story last month about a Douglass County court reporter retiring and there being a shortage of potential replacement court reporters to fill the role, they also highlighted this upcoming training opportunity.
Late last summer, court reporters around the state launched a series of introductory classes to people interested in the trade for which a college degree is not required.Full article with more information here (the portion on the First Steps classes is towards the bottom of the page). More information is available from the Illinois Court Reporters website here.
People could sign up for four weeks worth of classes taught for free by certified reporters to see if it was worth pursuing. One of the first round of classes was taught in Champaign. There were others in another 10 cities...
The next “First Steps” classes are scheduled for March 17, 24, and 31 at the Champaign Public Library, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Trauma Informed Care: This week there are also continuing classes on trauma informed care by the Trauma Resilience Initiative. More information is available in the TRI presentation at the Champaign County Community Coalition covered at a previous Cheat Sheet post here. This week begins a two class training for people to become educators on trauma informed care. More details from the facebook event page:
The CU Trauma & Resilience Initiative invites you to attend our Educator training to learn how to educate others about trauma and healing!More information at the event page here. There's also another trauma informed care class for those working with people affected by trauma coming up next Sunday. More information on that training event here. A list of the ongoing TRI training events here at their facebook page.
We are looking for a few good educators and teachers who want to feel more comfortable talking about trauma!
Meet us on Monday, February 17th & 24th at the Champaign Public Library, Busey Conference Room from 12:30- 4:30 pm.
We're looking for individuals who want to help:
-Educate others in the community, their organizations, groups or
families about trauma;
-Help share information with families, community members, and
friends about healing from trauma and resiliency;
-Share resources with those impacted by trauma(s) and help identify
and find healing and helpful solutions!
Austin's Place women's shelter has training for volunteers coming up this week as well. From the CU Progressive Calendar description:
Are you interested in volunteering with Austin's Place? Come join us for one of our training sessions. We'll discuss the services we provide, go through procedures, offer opportunities to sign up for nights, and answer any questions you may have.More information available at their training information website here:
Saturday, February 22, 10:00 a.m.
Training sessions are held at First United Methodist Church of Champaign, 210 W. Church Street, Champaign, IL.More information at that link here. Additional information on Austin's Place on their main website here. Recent news coverage on their future with CU at Home homeless program here. Recent News-Gazette coverage on Austin's Place here.
Parking: There is a large parking lot behind the church building to the north, off of Hill Street.
We will gather at the entrance for training & a walk-through of the facility.
Opportunity to sign up for overnight shifts will be available towards the end of the training sessions.
Season 13 training:
January 30, 2020 at 6:30 p.m.
February 22, 2020 at 10:00 a.m.
If you can't make it to the training sessions, you can still contact us about volunteering.
This is just a handful of training events that are free and/or available to the public that have been in local news coverage or coming up recently. There are other training opportunities happening regularly throughout the area. There are surely other events coming up that I'm simply not aware of or have overlooked. Sometimes digging through local news coverage and organizational updates I just don't get to them in time.
Pushout: One recent educational event that I wasn't able to get up on the Cheat Sheet in time involved a screening of the "Pushout" documentary film at Centennial High School by the C-U Black Teacher Alliance. The topic involves the disparities in perception and treatment of black girls in school, disciplinary outcomes and the school to prison pipeline. More information on that below for anyone interested in more information:
- Belated event information on the Pushout film screening that happened at Centennial High School earlier this week here on its facebook event page.
- Smile Politely interview with local founder of the C-U Black Teacher Alliance about the screening here.
- Film information: https://pushoutfilm.com/
- Book information from Amazon here.
- TED talk on the subject by the author available here.
An older Cheat Sheet post on Unit 4 and addressing pushout is available here. A post on local education and discipline disparities here.
:
No comments:
Post a Comment