Workshops
Conference Workshop Tracks
Management Track Workshops
This track is geared to staff who are responsible for the everyday operations of the MCP grant. Staff in these positions typically focus on providing supervision and guidance to case managers and other direct support staff, creating and managing data collection and reporting, and overseeing outreach, marketing and branding efforts in the community to recruit and attract mentors, mentees, partners and sponsors.
Integrating Family Support into Your MCP Program
Getting to the Core: What You Really Need to Know to Have a Thriving MCP Program
Leading By Example
Intranets & Extranets for Nonprofits
Designing Powerful Marketing Tools with Practical Technologies
Program Track Workshops
Staff interested in this track will be focused on conducting and implementing recruitment plans, providing ongoing match support, and be directly involved with face to face contact with mentors and mentees. The sessions in this track are geared towards the "what" and the "how" to get things accomplished programmatically.
PYD Incorporating Cultural Competency and Strength Based Mentoring
Recruitment: One Size Does Not Fit All
Calling Men to the Table
Telling Your MCP Story
Harmful or Not? Ethical Situations in Youth Mentoring
Power of Youth Voice: Developing Leaders for Tomorrow
Communication + Creativity = Effective Match Support
Not Exactly What We Planned: Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Helper Self-Care: Preventing Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious Traumatization
Why Do They Act That Way?
Learning from Youth: A Conversation About What Matters
Working with LGBTQ Mentors & Mentees
Match Support - Connecting Outside of the Cubicle
Executive Track Workshops
Executive Directors, Vice Presidents of Programs, and Financial Officers will find themselves attracted to this track. The sessions in the Executive track cover board development and management, fundraising and sustainability, and program evaluation. While attending sessions in this track you will approach topics from the "big picture" and asked to think "globally."
Partnership in Practice: Building a Youth Referral Network
The Road Less Traveled: Pathway to Big Gifts
Sustaining Your MCP Program Now and Later
Building a Fundraising Board
Do's and Don'ts of Partnering with Faith-based Organizations
Creating an Evaluation Dashboard
Sustainability Track Workshops
It goes without saying that each MCP grant is searching for ways to sustain their programming, matches, and organization. The sessions in this track will help all grantees to look towards sustainability while offering tools that can be implemented immediately to ensure program longevity.
Telling Your MCP Story
The Road Less Traveled: Pathway to Big Gifts
Leading By Example
Partnerships in Practice: Building a Youth Referral Network
Sustaining Your MCP Program Now & Later
Federal Grant Refresher
Designing Powerful Marketing Tools with Practical Technologies
Building a Fundraising Board
Creating an Evaluation Dashboard
2011 MCP National Conference Workshop Descriptions
Building a Fundraising Board
Location: Empire A
Offered: Thursday AM
Does your board refuse to accept their fundraising responsibility? Are they willing but not educated/trained in fundraising? Does the board lack enthusiasm for fundraising? Have you wondered if this is time for an extreme makeover of your board? If so, this session is for you. In this session, we will discuss the role the board plays on the development team, how to involve them in the fundraising process, how to assure that they will enthusiastically get involved with the fundraising efforts of your organization.
Linda Lysakowski, President/CEO, Capital Venture
Calling Men to the Table
Location: Empire A
Offered: Wednesday AM, Wednesday PM
In the research for, Man-Making – Men Helping Boys on Their Journey to Manhood, author Earl Hipp encountered a number of predictable and surprising barriers men experience when they consider mentoring boys. To be successful calling men into supportive relationships with the sons of the incarcerated, you may want to consider new ways to design your organizational offerings and put out the call to action in ways that men can hear. In this workshop you will learn about barriers to involvement, discuss innovative recruitment ideas, and share successes calling men to the important work of man-making.
Earl Hipp, President, Human Resource Development, Inc.
Communication + Creativity = Effective Match Support
Location: Benton A&B
Offered: Thursday AM, Thursday PM
Are you looking to find innovative ways to improve match support quality? Do you need ways to develop strong relationships with your matches? In this workshop we will share proven and effective methods for improving match support through communication and relationship-building. These methods will help you to enrich your relationships with mentors, mentees and their families by using creative methods to meet each match's individual needs. Breakout groups will be used to learn from each other's experience and build on the ideas presented. We encourage anyone looking for new ideas or willing to share what works for you to attend!
Latasha Frye, School Based Coordinator, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Capital Region
Creating an Evaluation Dashboard
Location: Chouteau A
Offered: Thursday PM
This workshop provides an opportunity to reflect on the role of evaluation and how your team can make the most of the evaluation data you collect and put it to work for you. Learn how to construct an evaluation dashboard to track and communicate the evaluation data of interest to your staff, partners, stakeholders and funders.
Carol Hays, Senior Principal Consultant, Community Systems/CSII
Designing Powerful Marketing Tools with Practical Technologies
Location: Empire C
Offered: Thursday AM, Thursday PM
This workshop is designed to increase the marketing and recruitment capacity of MCP Programs. Participants will learn how to integrate web design, desktop publishing, and web-based marketing tools to help build successful programs. Participants will learn how to (1) use Windows Movie Maker to produce powerful tools to archive mentoring relationships and program activities, (2) build videos into project websites; and (3) how to use Constant Contact, a web-based internet marketing tool, to promote MCP programs, match partner recruitment, match partner contact, match monitoring, and follow-up.
Robert Harrison, Executive Director, Institute for Community and Organizational Development, Inc.
Do's and Don'ts of Partnering with Faith-based Organizations
Location: Van Horn A&B
Offered: Thursday AM
Nervous about partnering with the faith-based community? Unclear on exactly what you can and cannot do? Join us for an interactive session to review the legal guidelines for partnering with faith-based organizations in federally funded programs. Examine some of the barriers to partnership and review creative partnership options to address some of your program's toughest challenges. More importantly, hear from your peers on partnership development strategies that have worked best for them. This workshop is ideal for employees who are new to building community partnerships. Join us!
Carley Frohling, Executive Director, Servant Forge
Getting to the Core: What You Really Need to Know to Have a Thriving MCP Program
Location: Benton A&B
Offered: Wednesday AM
Join members of the MCP Advisory Board as they share the wisdom they've gained during their MCP program process. Topics may include: recruitment and retention of mentors and staff, inventive program activities, exciting partnerships, overcoming routine challenges, and making your MCP program sustainable.
Jerry Dash, Jennifer Voit, Becky Cooper, Stephan Bardy, MCP Support Center Advisory Board Members
Harmful or Not? Ethical Situations in Youth Mentoring
Location: Van Horn A&B
Offered: Wednesday PM
This workshop will explore the "aspirational goals" developed by researchers of a recent study outlining five guiding principles for ethical behavior, including guidelines around safety, trust, responsibility, integrity, cultural differences, and respect. We will discuss exactly how programs can implement important planning, programming, and risk management strategies in order to abide by these goals. Attendees will be encouraged to participate in discussions around practicality, feasibility, and the motivation of voluntarily complying with these five principles, given the lack of governing or oversight bodies in our field.
Sarah Kremer, Program Director Mentoring Institute, Friends for Youth, Inc.
Helper Self-Care: Preventing Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious Traumatization
Location: Chicago B
Offered: Thursday AM
Working with challenging populations can be more than just exhausting to those in the helping profession. Managing the daily stress of children and their families in crisis can take a toll on productivity, enthusiasm, and can even be harmful to program staff. In this workshop, we'll discuss the different levels of stress reactions (burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious traumatization), take a self-assessment, discuss strategies for stress reduction, and experience a creative strategy for self-care. Attendees will learn how to balance care giving demands with work requirements while remaining engaged with the mission of the agency.
Sarah Kremer, Program Director Mentoring Institute, Friends for Youth, Inc.
Integrating Family Support into Your MCP Program
Location: Chicago B
Offered: Wednesday AM, Wednesday PM
This workshop will provide an outline of services that can be provided by Family Support. You will learn how to find natural supports in your communities and how these supports can be utilized by your MCP program. You will develop a strategy to identify and engage your community to provide the best possible situation for the MCP youth and family. Finally, methods of review and evaluation will be discussed to ensure that family support services provided under the terms of your grant are consistent with the goal of improving the quality and longevity of each and every MCP match.
Dana Frame, Executive Director, Compeer Rochester
Intranets & Extranets for Nonprofits
Location: Chouteau B
Offered: Wednesday AM
Collecting, organizing, and storing information effectively is an ongoing battle, and streamlining administrative tasks that take time away from your mission is rarely a top priority. This session will discuss the basics of intranet and extranet applications, present methods for bringing one or both into your organization, and how they can help your organization: Create consistency in how tasks are completed and information is managed to minimize errors and time spent understanding the work of others and create organizational knowledge that allows the most seamless movement possible of people into, within, and out of your organization.
Matthew Sidorick, IT and Operations Manager, Olszak Management Consulting, Inc.
Leading By Example
Location: Choteau B
Offered: Wednesday AM
What role do we play as leaders of our organization? Are we instruments, models, facilitators, or something else? Take a fresh step in enhancing your organization's mission through the strengths of your people - volunteers, staff, and board alike. Leave with an action plan you can begin using tomorrow. Walk away with the ability to gain consensus and commitment to common objectives in your organization. Learn the characteristics and behaviors of an effective leader and how to incorporate them with your workgroup and those outside the organization.
Frank Polkowski, President, NonProfit and Management Consultants
Learning from Youth: A Conversation About What Matters
Location: Empire B
Offered: Thursday AM, Thursday PM
When providing youth who have experienced parental incarceration with an avenue to speak about their experience, a Youth Panel is essential. This Youth Panel will also provide a youth perspective to help MCP Programs in service delivery. During this inspiring panel presentation, youth share their stories, their achievements, and their challenges. Hear first-hand what makes a difference to youth in MCP programs, the best outreach tactics, and what's new in youth culture. Join this exceptional panel for interactive discussion that can alter the way your MCP program does business.
Youth Panel
Match Support – Connecting Outside of the Cubicle
Location: Chicago C
Offered: Thursday PM
According to recent statistics, 47% of online adults and 73% of teens/young adults participate in social networking sites. If you long for the "good ol' days" of pen and paper or you are ready for your office to go paperless, Match Support – Connecting Outside of the Cubicle will provide ideas and skills to reach your matches using social media. We will address the positive and negative aspects, but we won't just debate the topic! We will discuss ways to responsibly harness social media to connect with your matches, while encouraging them to communicate in more traditional ways.
Melissa Hutchins, Match Support Specialist, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kentuckiana
Not Exactly What We Planned: Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Location: Chicago A
Offered: Thursday AM, Thursday PM
Grandparents are raising many of our children who have an incarcerated parent. Like all caregivers of children, they are faced with many of the same challenges. But being a grandparent who is looking forward to "slowing down," and then finding yourself raising your children's children can be a daunting endeavor, and has special complications that need to be understood and appreciated. In this workshop we'll explore some of the unique challenges faced by these grandparents and share strategies for the best ways to provide match support for them and for the mentors who are mentoring children in these households.
Sally Stoker, Training and Professional Development Coordinator, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado
Partnership in Practice: Building a Youth Referral Network
Location: Chicago C
Offered: Wednesday AM, Wednesday PM
A unique challenge of operating a Mentoring Children of Prisoners program is the need to solicit youth referrals. This workshop presents, from a practitioner perspective, how one Big Brothers Big Sisters agency developed a crucial partnership with a local correctional center to increase youth referrals. Participant large group discussions, small group work and Q&A opportunities will be provided to help MCP organizations apply the example within the context of the assets and restrictions of their local communities.
Rebel McKinley, Director of Development, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County, Inc.
Power of Youth Voice: Developing Leaders for Tomorrow
Location: Chouteau B
Offered: Thursday AM, Thursday PM
Project WHAT! (PW) raises awareness about the effects of parental incarceration on children, with the long-term goal of improving services and policies that affect these children. WHAT! stands for We're Here And Talking, which is exactly what the team is doing. The program employs young people who have experienced parental incarceration as the primary curriculum content developers and facilitators for trainings. The perspectives of the youth are central to this project. Project WHAT! youth will co-facilitate this workshop, which will include their personal stories, interactive activities, best practices on youth development, a short documentary film, and time for discussion. Materials you will receive include the Bill of Rights for Children of Incarcerated Parents, an 80-page Resource Guide for Teens in the Bay Area with a Parent in Prison or jail, and handouts that discuss common questions that children have when a parent is incarcerated.
Mailee Wang, Program and Policy Director and Cheyanne Torres, Youth Advocate Project WHAT!, Community Works
PYD Incorporating Cultural Competency and Strength Based Mentoring
Location: Empire B
Offered: Wednesday AM, Wednesday PM
Positive Youth Development is intended to provide youth with the opportunity to exercise leadership, build skills, and get involved in the matters that concern them. This in and of itself can be a challenge. Although the generation gap has existed throughout history, the rapid cultural changes of this modern era have made it harder to bridge that gap where today's youth are concerned. Staying current in the knowledge of the behaviors, beliefs, and characteristics of youth today can be extremely overwhelming. These factors, in addition to the many challenges they face such as having an incarcerated parent, can make it extremely difficult to connect with the youth of today. Youth with incarcerated parents often struggle with trust, attachment, and even self-identity issues that inhibit their ability to build relationships with caring, invested adults or even trust in themselves. The content of this workshop will provide a caring, invested mentor with a sound understanding of youth culture and strength-based mentoring that will fortify and enhance any Positive Youth Development framework. The Recipient to Resource manual that each mentor creates will provide an adaptable, practical tool. The manual will give the mentor a blueprint that can be used to identify and take advantage of the youth's positive traits in order to influence them to become dependent upon themselves as reliable sources of help.
Felicia Roach, Founder/CEO, CULTIVATE (Cultured Urban Learning Teaching Innovative Values Achievement Targeting Excellence)
Recruitment: One Size Does Not Fit All
Location: Empire C
Offered: Wednesday AM, Wednesday PM
In this interactive session we will explore a variety of ways that support can be provided to matches from day one to increase the effectiveness of the match and the quality of the relationship. Participants will share strategies for success, review quality match support resources and research, and create a personal plan for match support. We will identify common barriers to success for Mentoring Children of Prisoners matches and share tips to help mentors and mentees avoid these barriers and navigate towards success.
Lisa Bottomley, Mentoring Specialist, and Molly Frendo, Associate Program Leader, Michigan State University Extension
Sustaining Your MCP Program Now and Later
Location: Chouteau A
Offered: Wednesday AM
This workshop will provide the individual with a variety of ways to sustain their mentoring children of prisoners program and realize new avenues of funding sources. You will understand how to make donors (foundations and individuals) feel inspired and excited to make a gift to your organization – not just once but over again. Participants will promote their own as well as learn from other best practices in the sustainability of your MCP program.
Sharon Catalano, Grant Writer, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Oklahoma
Telling Your MCP Story
Location: Chicago A
Offered: Wednesday AM, Wednesday PM
Every MCP Program is challenged to tell its story, to engage the public and private sectors, and move people and groups to action. This special session is designed to tap into your creative force and use the art of storytelling to help you tell your MCP story in the most compelling and entertaining way possible. During this session expert storytellers and radio hosts from The Stoop radio program, based out of Baltimore, Maryland, will work with participants to shape and share his/her story. You will leave this session inspired, excited, and with a brand new approach to sharing your MCP story.
Laura Wexler, Producer and Co-host, Jessica Henkin, Producer and Co-host, Stoop Radio Program
The Road Less Traveled: Pathway to Big Gifts
Location: Chouteau A
Offered: Wednesday AM
Individual giving accounts for approximately 85% of all charitable contributions in the United States. How can your nonprofit follow the path that will lead to landing the big gifts? Major gifts are defined differently by each organization, but every organization needs to know the 95/5 Rule and how to implement it to assure a diverse, stable funding stream. In this class we will discuss ways to identify, cultivate and solicit major donors. The role of the board, staff and volunteers in this process will be discussed.
Linda Lysakowski, President/CEO, Capital Venture
Why Do They Act That Way?
Location: Empire A
Offered: Thursday AM, Thursday PM
Adolescents- old enough to know better, but too young to resist! Most of us just stand and scratch our heads when faced with this "hormonally-charged" age group. This session will explore the various physical, social, and cognitive aspects of adolescent development and how understanding these stages help in teaching decision-making and self-regulation. Come learn specific communication and intervention strategies that focus on building positive rapport and help adolescents learn to make healthy choices and manage their own behavior. This workshop is activity-based and provides hands-on opportunities to put the information taught into practice. Participants will receive an overview and resources for the various stages of adolescent development. Activities will focus on understanding these stages and using the information in building relationships with adolescents that provide for their needs and help them to reach their potential through positive decision-making and self-regulation.
Gayle Gorke, Executive Director, Kids Kan Inc.
Federal Grant Refresher
Location: Chicago B
Offered: Thursday PM
With all the changes in the funding environment many organizations are preparing to apply for additional federal grants in the coming year. This session is a good refresher or introduction to selecting, reviewing, and writing federal grants. Learn to review request for proposals with a discerning eye towards important details, structure your response to be direct and full of information that will satisfy reviewers, and edit your proposal to ensure the final product meets all the requirements in the request for proposal.
MCP Support Staff