How do you keep your community organizing training consistent across trainers and locations?

1 Assess your needs

Before you plan your training, you need to assess the needs of your target audience, your organization, and your campaign. What are the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that your organizers need to develop or improve? What are the gaps or challenges that they face in their work? How does your training fit into your overall strategy and vision? By conducting a needs assessment, you can tailor your training to the specific needs and interests of your organizers, and avoid wasting time and resources on irrelevant or redundant topics.

2 Define your objectives

Once you have identified your needs, you need to define your objectives for your training. What are the expected outcomes or results of your training? How will you measure or evaluate them? How will they contribute to your organizational or campaign goals? By defining your objectives, you can clarify the purpose and direction of your training, and communicate them clearly to your trainers and organizers. You can also use them as a basis for designing your curriculum, activities, and materials.

3 Use a common framework

To ensure consistency across trainers and locations, you need to use a common framework for your training. A framework is a set of principles, concepts, and methods that guide your training design and delivery. It helps you to organize your content, structure your sessions, and facilitate your interactions. A common framework also helps you to create a shared language and understanding among your trainers and organizers, and to align your training with your values and culture. You can use an existing framework, such as the popular education approach, or develop your own based on your needs and context.

4 Train your trainers

Even if you have a common framework, you still need to train your trainers to ensure that they can deliver your training effectively and confidently. Training your trainers is not just about teaching them the content and the methods, but also about building their skills, attitudes, and relationships. You need to provide them with opportunities to practice, receive feedback, and learn from each other. You also need to support them with resources, guidance, and recognition. By training your trainers, you can enhance their competence and motivation, and foster a sense of ownership and accountability.

5 Monitor and improve

Finally, you need to monitor and improve your training to ensure that it is consistent, relevant, and impactful. You need to collect and analyze data from your trainers and organizers, such as feedback forms, surveys, tests, or observations. You need to use the data to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your training, and to identify the areas for improvement or adjustment. You also need to share the data and the findings with your trainers and organizers, and involve them in the improvement process. By monitoring and improving your training, you can ensure that it meets the needs and expectations of your trainers and organizers, and that it contributes to your organizational or campaign success.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?