Support to Practice

Working in the community social services sector requires you to make difficult judgment calls all the time—you have to deal with a lot of tough and complex situations. But for the most part, clinical supervision is focused on staff only in therapeutic roles.

Support 2 Practice training strives to support all of our valuable employees. It explores and shares what we are calling a “Support to Practice” framework custom-built for all staff in supervisory roles—and one that translates to a wide range of service delivery areas.

Support 2 Practice Management Training Sessions

Overview

Building on the learning and feedback through delivering Support to Practice Supervision (S2PS) to over 16 cohorts, the Federation, through facilitators Chris Burt and Gord Cote, is now offering the next iteration of management practice workshops. Support to Practice Management (S2PM) is for new or mid-level managers. The selected content is designed to provide participants with a roadmap for navigating the complexities of organizations while building practical skills for enhancing the capacity of their organizations’ workforce. Specific content includes management theory and models, the context for administrative supervision, the influence of organizational culture, leadership, the value of coaching, and working through conflict.

Details

Support 2 Practice Management is a comprehensive training that develops an understanding of managing people in the social services sector. Managing any organization, big or small, requires a unique skill set beyond knowing the organization’s product or service, and the social service sector provides a unique context when it comes to managing and developing clinicians and direct service personnel to ensure client-centred service while meeting the constraints of funding and contract mandates.

This unique training explores the challenges of working in hierarchical structures within a sector philosophy of equity and inclusion while championing self-agency at every level. Learning areas include understanding the various aspects of managing organizations, teams, and individuals within human service organizations, the administrative responsibilities of managing unique departments and programs for ensuring effective outcomes, creating a supportive organizational culture, supporting the development of employees, supporting direct service decisions, and progressive discipline and managing conflict.

Following the success of Support 2 Practice Supervision, which described a model for supporting direct service clinicians to provide effective client-centred service, this researched-based training has been developed for the Federation of Community Social Services of BC to expand on what it means to ‘manage’ in a service-driven industry within the British Columbia context.

Federation members and community social services sector leaders Chris Burt and Gord Cote will facilitate this training session.

Upcoming Sessions

We are in the process of scheduling future sessions of this training. Please contact info@fcssbc.ca (attn: Katherine) to inquire about other training opportunities through the Federation.

Support 2 Practice Management participants can access their private web pages with resources, recordings, contact info, and presentations here.

April 2024 Virtual Session

October 2024 In-Person Session

Schedule

No sessions are scheduled at this time.

Coming Soon

2025 Sessions

Plans are underway to host virtual and in–person Support 2 Practice Management Sessions in 2025. Please watch for more information to come.

Past Offerings

Support 2 Practice Management participants can access their private web pages with resources, recordings, contact info, and presentations here.

October 2024 In-Person Session

April 2024 Virtual Session

Session Structure

Each in-person cohort of participants followed the same three-part training structure.

1-day virtual PRINCIPLED ENGAGEMENT workshop.
1-day in-person SUPPORT 2 PRACTICE supervision workshop
3-hour virtual SUPPORT 2 PRACTICE follow-up session

Principled Engagement with Indigenous People Description

Prior to the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) process in Canada, there has been a long history of activist work from Indigenous people to address colonization in Canada. The TRC process and Calls to Action have increased interest within organizations to better understand their role and responsibility in enhancing relations with Indigenous Peoples. This has also sparked an interest in understanding what Reconciliation, Decolonization, and Indigenization mean and how to apply these frameworks to build engagement with Indigenous People in organizations.

By examining the connection between the past and the present, participants will explore beliefs, impacts, and current structural tensions impacting Indigenous People, including the function of things like bias and privilege. Through dialogue, critical analysis, and case studies, in a dynamic and interactive learning environment, participants will locate their own learning needs and goals for action for principled engagement with Indigenous People.

This is a participatory workshop where participants will learn how to enhance relationships with Indigenous People. Participants will examine past and present realities that Indigenous People experience; learn how to apply a 3-step process to assess beliefs impacting Indigenous People; develop links between individual and systemic actions; learn tools for engagement, safe service and equity and assess next steps their learning journeys.

Please note: While this training offers all participants an opportunity for reflection, analysis and learning, we acknowledge that the workshop content may be difficult or triggering for some people. Supports will be in place during and after the workshop, but if there is some reason you feel you may be unable to attend, please contact Bess Williams (Federation Members & General Public) or Adrienne Yeung (CAI Grantees) who will be happy to discuss your concerns.

About the Instructors
Instructors Rain Daniels and Chelsey Branch collectively bring over 40 years of facilitation and teaching experience, specialized skill and critical analysis to this crucial dialogue.

Support to Practice Supervision Workshop Description

These seminars will support your practice within the broader concept of management supervision, provide a synopsis of research that reviews best practices of supervision, detail the key aspects of effective supervision processes, and review structured models for use in community-based settings. Attendees will gain direct skill-based practice to help them build personal efficacy in providing support to practice supervision.

Over three sessions, supervisors and managers will explore a wide range of supervisory approaches and responsibilities and will develop specific skills that will enable them to better support staff across various service delivery areas. These workshops will help ensure your organizations are able to meet the unique and changing of your clients and communities.

About the Instructors
Course instructors Christopher Burt, Gordon Coté, and Riley McKenzie are recognized professionals from the Community Social Services Sector with teaching experience and extensive knowledge of the social service industry.

Improving Service Delivery

The first two cohorts of the Support to Practice Cohort were offered in Spring 2021. Five more cohorts were offered between September 2021 and April 2022. Seven additional cohorts were offered between April 2022 and March 2023.

This training was tailored for individuals supervising front-line practitioners in the social services sector, including those in therapeutic care homes, community outreach, and centre-based support services.

Each cohort was limited to 20 participants and we encouraged only 1-2 participants from each organization to attend in order to allow a diverse range of perspectives and service areas in each cohort.

Support to Practice Supervision Training 1.0 was offered in partnership with Community Action Initiative and CityU.

CANCELLATION POLICY: SUPPORT 2 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT TRAINING

1. Your registration confirmation is your invoice, and payment is due upon receipt. Please ensure that payment reaches The Federation office PRIOR to the training date. If payment is not received within 30 calendar days after the start of the training, registrants will be invoiced an additional $25.00 administration fee.

2. Registrants who cancel 3-5 business days prior to the training will receive a refund less the $25.00 per person administration fee. There will be no refund issued if cancellation occurs within 0-2 business days of the training start date or after training has started.

3. If you do not cancel within the above-noted time frames (see #2), you are responsible for the registration fee and will be invoiced accordingly.

4. Registrations are transferable to a different person for the same training. Please contact The Federation office for assistance with this. Registrations are not transferable to another type of training. Registrations are only transferable once.