ACEs & Resiliency (ACE-R) Workshop

To recruit individuals to participate as trainers in the workshop, leverage your networks for candidates within organizations supportive of your effort who are interested in volunteering and presenting. This includes community partner organizations from across various sectors. Create promotional materials that explain the workshop, responsibilities, and expectations of the role that can be shared on public forums, bulletin boards, and social media.

ACE-R Trainer Agreement (PDF)

Workshop materials include any handouts that aid in the overall presentation of the ACE-R workshop, such as leave-behind flyers with examples of strategies and follow-up activities they can implement on their own.

Tip: Once you’ve gone through multiple workshop sessions, begin to update the materials in coordination with insights provided by community trainers and workshop surveys.

ACEs Infographic (PDF)
Youth Resilience Development Model (PDF)
Strategies to Build Resiliency Worksheet (PDF)
References & Resources (PDF)
ACE-R Action Items (PDF)
ACE-R Slide Deck (PPTX)

Piloting the workshop is critical to ensure the training functions as intended and allows you to fix any flaws before its first implementation. The process will involve asking trainers to run through the workshop with a small audience, possibly including other trainers, and seeking input.

Tip: If major edits are made to the contents of the workshop, you should run it through a peer review process with community partners and other key stakeholders before training any of your recruits.

Questions to ask reviewers:

1. Is the content sound?
2. What's missing?
3. Is there a good mix of information or is it too heavy/light in certain areas?

Once volunteers have signed up to become trainers, set up a kick-off meeting to train them on the presentation and review background materials, as this can be a good time to receive feedback on the workshop. This is also a good time for trainers to build rapport. At training events, you should provide trainers with all the necessary workshop material, including handouts, best practices, and a flash drive containing the PowerPoint.

Tip: If this isn’t your first run-through, invite new trainers to observe the next workshop being held, so they get a better understanding of the material.

The 5 E’s for Presenting (PDF)
Trainers Meeting Agenda (PDF)
Trainers Kit (PDF)

Create outreach materials, like brochures and flyers that describe the workshop and provide additional information about ACEs and youth resiliency. Then, once the materials are prepared and you have trainers in the queue, reach out to individuals in your community network who work with youth-serving organizations, such as healthcare, schools, law enforcement, etc. To generate awareness, consider a digital ad campaign or reach out to local news organizations for earned media opportunities in print, digital, tv, and radio.

ACE-R Workshop Flyer (PDF)

After you’ve confirmed an organization’s interest in hosting an ACE-R workshop, coordinate the details with your contact. Work with them to determine when and where they’d like the workshop to take place. Ask them how many people will participate, ensuring the room has the capabilities to project a presentation and the capacity to hold a set number of people. This also lets you know how many handout copies to have available. For those interested, you should provide the ACE-R Workshop Request Form, allowing you to measure the success of the workshop.

Tip: Due to amount of content, the optimal number of participants is 20-30 per workshop. Consider rescheduling if there are fewer than six.

Workshop Request Form (PDF)

Now that the groundwork has been laid, you are ready to conduct your ACE-R workshop. Administer the workshop and provide any handouts that you had prepared.

Tip: When presenting during a workshop, connect the information being presented with a personal story of yours to better engage the audience.

After the workshop has been conducted, administer the Workshop Evaluation Forms. These will be the core to its continuous improvement, as they allow you to see what aspects of the workshop might need to be re-worked. Communicate directly with an organization’s leadership to describe evaluation results and demonstrate where learning occurred as a result of participants taking the workshop. Use this opportunity to ask the organization about next steps, including potential organizational change around the information provided and additional options to promote youth resilience.

Tip: Document the changes that will occur as a result of the workshop and the changes the organization is likely to implement.

Workshop Evaluation Form - Organization (PDF)
Workshop Evaluation Form - Participants (PDF)

After you have received feedback from your participants, review their comments to determine what portion of the presentation could use more/better examples, what topics more time should be spent on vs. others, and what slides need changes.

When a trainer is suddenly unavailable, you should have a Plan B. By keeping track of which trainers are available on specific dates, you can ensure a replacement is available. Depending on your situation, you may need to recruit more trainers or reschedule trainings and workshops. Planning ahead and the ability to adapt are key in these scenarios.

To ensure your organization reaches your entire community, you can use data to identify gaps in your coverage. This can be particularly useful if you organization is based in a city but needs to reach rural communities. By mapping out which communities you have and have not reached (you can use tools like Tableau) to identify where you need to focus your efforts to expand your reach.

With a number of other mental health workshops likely available in your area, you will need to distinguish your offering from others in order for the community to differentiate and determine which best suits their needs. Two of the biggest distinguishers of the ACE-R workshop are that they are conducted for whole organizations – not just individuals – and the workshop focuses on prevention and supporting youth to positively impact their mental well-being in the long-term.

In the event that in-person instruction is not available, you may need to quickly adapt to virtual instruction. There is a plethora of resources that allow you to conduct live meetings via video, such as Zoom and WebEx. Ensuring a contingency plan is in place and trainers have the resources available to move a workshop online as needed is helpful in today’s digital world and allows for flexibility of schedule. In order to conduct virtual workshops, consider the use of a technical assistance guide for trainers and a modified presentation which includes links to handouts in google drive and notices to participants, like “please participate with your camera on,” and “this workshop is not recorded.”

Zoom Hosting Tips (DOCX)
Technical Assistance Guide (PDF)
ACE-R Virtual Slide Deck (PPTX)

It is important to hold a kickoff meeting when training the trainers on material, as it brings everyone together, giving them a chance to introduce themselves and allowing you to do a deep dive on the materials as well as the process of scheduling the workshops. The most important aspect of training the trainers and holding group meetings is fostering communication and sharing experiences, ensuring trainers have the support needed to succeed and know they are appreciated.

Tip: One way to show support for your trainers is to provide reimbursement for expenses such as mileage. Use of the trainer agreement allows trainers to document such expenses.

Trainer Agreement (PDF)

By leveraging community connections, word of mouth communication can be a very successful tactic in getting members of various target organizations involved. Aim to establish partnerships with local schools and businesses to successfully implement ACE-R trainings to their staff.

During the coordination of logistics, consider walking through the Workshop Request Form with your contact at the host organization. This document will serve the important purpose of gathering information on experiences and interests from the group of participants, allowing you to tailor your presentation with examples and conversation topics that fit accordingly. Once the form has been completed by the organization, share that information with trainers, as this allows them to include the most relevant pieces in the presentation.

During workshops, it is helpful to have two trainers in the session who balance the large amount of content. While one person is presenting, the other can handle technical details, like moving through slides, sharing handouts, and administering polls. If a workshop participant needs to step out of the room due to the nature of the content, having an additional presenter on hand allows the workshop to move forward uninterrupted, while they check-in on the participant.

It is best to bring your team of trainers together every six months to debrief on progress, discuss and document strategies for improvement, and make necessary modifications. Use of the Trainers Meeting Agenda document can assist documenting modifications. Be sure that each trainer brings their flash drive with files to these meetings in the event that changes are made to materials.

If you have the capacity, Workshop Request and Workshop Evaluation forms can be used to develop Feedback Summary reports that allow you to demonstrate the success of the workshop to the host organization.

Feedback Summary Report (PPTX)

To keep track of what works and what doesn’t, use a series of evaluation methods, including surveys of workshop participants. These evaluations are eventually shared with trainers, organizations, and the coalition to guide future decision-making. Evaluation forms are particularly helpful in identifying areas for improvement, leading to workshop changes, such as incorporating more examples of resilience and self-care tactics.

• Flash drive
• 2-inch Program Binders (with printed slides and areas for notes)
• Handout Materials 

Note: Additional costs will accrue if you opt for a digital marketing campaign. Facebook ads are generally $0.94 per click or about $12 per 1,000 impressions.

• Train the Trainer: 8 hours
• Workshop Coordination & Outreach: 3 hours
• Workshop Preparation: 2 hours
• Workshop Facilitation: 2 hours
• Miscellaneous Workshop time (i.e., travel): 1 hour
• Follow-up Train the Trainers: 2-3 hours each 

Note: If feedback evaluations are conducted, additional time should be considered depending on workshop size.