Workshops & Trainings
Our workshops and training sessions allow for difficult and intensive work within a model that makes participants feel safe enough to stay invested and engaged throughout.
Each workshop combines personal and group experiential learning, conceptual theory, and opportunities to practice new approaches.
Our excellent client satisfaction is the result of:
- The expertise of our consultants
- The strength of our theory
- The non-judgmental atmosphere we create
- Our commitment to addressing the specific needs of our clients—for individuals or organizational groups
PACE Connect @ Foxfire Ranch
Join VISIONS Inc at Foxfire Ranch in Hill Country, Mississippi for PACE Connect, our newest retreat experience that combines VISIONS' time-tested model for developing cross-cultural communication skills with an immersive natural environment. Through intentional engagement with this powerful process in nature, participants have the opportunity to engage a broader process of transformation, healing, and connection.
Accommodations:
Participants will be invited to camp on the grounds of Foxfire Ranch ($20/night) or to stay at the Tru Hilton in Oxford, Mississippi ($114/night + tax for an approximate total of $125, or $500 for four nights).
There are shared bathroom facilities and a covered area for people to sleep in case of inclement weather.
- Per person cost (not including accommodations): $1,300.
- If you need support on the course fees, please email us at office@visions-inc.org. *Limited Sponsorships Available*
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VISIONS on the Alabama Civil Rights Trail - Spring 2023
Join VISIONS for a unique workshop and tour experience along the Alabama Civil Rights Trail in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma from Tuesday April 25th to Sunday April 30th!
Beginning on the evening of April 25th, participants will be introduced to VISIONS' foundational model, frameworks, and tools while visiting key Alabama civil rights sites including the Equal Justice Initiative’s (EJI's) National Memorial for Peace and Justice and The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery; the Civil Rights District including the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI), Kelly Ingram Park, 16th Street Baptist Church, and other historic sites in Birmingham; and the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Brown Chapel AME Church, the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, and other historic sites in Selma.
During the workshop portions of the five-day experience, participants will enhance their personal skills for relating and working across difference, engage in reflective work about their group identities, and learn to understand and mitigate the ways that modern forms of oppression might show up in their lives. Each evening, additional time will be availalble for affinity groups. These groups will be designed to support any emotional/feeling responses that might arise from the tour portions of the day.
The tour and workshop will take place from the evening of Tuesday, April 25, 2023 and end midday Sunday, April 30, 2023. Workshops and accommodations will be based at the Wingate by Wyndham Hotel, 2060 Eastern Blvd, Montgomery, AL 36117 for all five nights. Breakfast at the hotel is included from April 26 to April 30, 2023. Check-in at the hotel is at 3:00pm Central Time.
PACE
PACE (Personal Approach to Change and Equity) Level I is the foundational workshop offered by VISIONS. When you complete this course, we believe you will have the skills necessary to:
- Identify previously unconscious biases and misinformation in yourself, in others, and in organizations.
- Communicate more effectively across difference.
- Recognize personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural barriers to inclusion.
- Understand the ongoing personal effects of historical and contemporary exclusion and oppression, for example, the effects of sexism on both men and women.
- Facilitate change in groups and organizations to create a supportive environment of inclusion.
- Per person cost: $1,150.
- If you need support on the course fees, please email us at office@visions-inc.org.
PACE 1 is required to become a VISIONS Consultant.
Upcoming dates:
PACE Level II advances the skills learned in Level I, adds new skills and gives participants the opportunity to practice in order to gain increased comfort and fluency in their use.
In Level II, participants:
- Review material from Level I, focusing on areas in which they desire more guidance and practice in using the tools and material.
- Learn about and try on using worldview differences.
- Explore group identity development and its impacts on cross-cultural interactions and organizational change.
- Practice facilitation skill and intervention strategies (Transactional Analysis/Gestalt theory, cooperative problem solving, and other personal and community change models).
- Per person cost: $1,150.
- If you need support on the course fees, please email us at office@visions-inc.org.
Upcoming dates:
- TBD
DEI Essentials: Intro to DEI
Introductory course on diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) led by VISIONS, an experienced organization with a 37-year history, based on a time-tested model, with useful & insightful takeaways.
We took our four-day PACE intensive and broke it into smaller, more digestible session with this ongoing, small group series to engage with VISIONS’ core tools. DEI Essentials engages participants from different backgrounds in an interactive, facilitated space that is conducted with an invitational approach that creates an authentic, non-blaming learning environment.
Who is this for?
- Leaders in organizations who would like to learn about how DEI training can benefit their organization.
- Teams who want to attend DEI training together.
- Educators, human service & healthcare providers, and staff and volunteers in the nonprofit sector who are looking to improve interactions with colleagues and improve client/ student/ patient experience.
- Interested individuals who are new to DEI
- People who have attended DEI training in the past and would like a refresher course
When?
Upcoming dates TBD.
What is the format?
- A four-session course.
- 2-hour weekly sessions for four consecutive weeks
- The course uses a combination of lectures and interactive learning elements.
- Live session via Zoom
- Led by 2 facilitators, with a maximum of 20 participants
How much is it, and how do I sign up?
- This 4-session course is $350 per participant
- Register here.
Ongoing Skill Building Peer Supervision
In response to clients’ request for continued learning, support and feedback, VISIONS has Ongoing Skill Building courses for individuals and small groups who have taken the PACE Level I training.
In Ongoing Supervision, participants:
- Explore specific personal and organizational challenges around inclusion.
- Practice applying core tools and facilitation skills to these challenges.
- Deepen their learning of worldview theory, group identity, and cooperative problem-solving.
- Challenge personal unconscious biases within a cooperative peer context.
When?
East Coast (9:00am - 4:30pm EST)
April 21
July 21
October 20
January 19
West Coast (9:00am - 4:30pm PST)
April 28
July 28
October 27
January 26
Stay tuned for registration coming soon!
What is the format?
- Four total all day sessions
- 9:00a to 4:30p with a 90-minute lunch break ( Times (including meal breaks) are subject to change at the discretion of facilitators)
- The course uses a combination of lectures and interactive learning elements.
- Live session via Zoom
- Led by 2 facilitators, with a maximum of 20 participants
How much is it, and how do I sign up?
- The fee for this workshop (four total sessions) is $2,000.00 for new participants, $1,600.00 for returning participants.
- (Note: the date displays in registration as the first session only - there are four total sessions. The fee schedule below is priced for the four sessions total.)
Youth Engagement
Enhancing youth leadership skills is a key component in all of our youth work.
We provide workshops, technical assistance and training for youth, and the adults who support them. We currently have versions of the Legacy Project currently running in Fresno and New Orleans.
Youth services and resources currently offered include:
- Customized workshops and programs for youth, as well as for adults who work with youth.
- The Legacy Project, a summer employment and leadership skills training program.
- YES! Kit, a printed training curriculum with DVD support available for purchase and use by adults and youth workers.
Legacy Project
The program teaches young people how to be instruments of social change by empowering them to understand the root causes of systemic inequities, and equipping them with the skills necessary to be educators of other youth. Youth gain the ability to understand their current reality through a historical, economic, and psychological lens that takes into account the effect that such oppression has over time on individuals and communities.
The Legacy Project is run Fresno, CA with the potential to be replicated in other parts of the US, depending on funding and local interest. Legacy is financially supported by both individuals and private and corporate foundations.
YES! Kit Guide
The guide is divided into five distinct sessions that focus on each key element of the process of learning and change. With this tool, educators and youth workers can move youth from awareness to action, guided by topics such as recognizing varying forms of exclusion, understanding the impact of personal thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and translating new information and insights to the real world.
Youth Empowerment Workshops
Both youth and the adults who work with them report that VISIONS training has:
- Allowed youth and staff to share a common framework and language.
- Interrupted the perpetuation of bias and “one-downing” of another group.
- Increased young people’s self-confidence and their perception of themselves as leaders and allies.
- Improved both youth and adults’ ability to deal with internal conflicts and collaborate more effectively.
- Made both the organization and the youth more successful in achieving their social justice mission.
E-Learning
Not your everyday training program, Inclusion In Action is interactive and self-paced, and uses relatable workplace scenarios to teach employees inclusive communication skills that can lead to better work relationships and results.
