Our WHY: Through Friends Learning Academy (FLA), our network will improve child and family outcomes by strengthening the quality of staff training, supervision and support. The organization-wide platform will link local and national best practices and support the management of staff knowledge transfer. Long term, we envision FLA as a professional development tool through which Friends of the Children will advance the field of “Professional Mentoring."
FLA will disseminate strategies derived from our collective work in the field; as well as research-driven best practices recommended by top researchers in the field. Currently, these courses are in FLA or under development to upload in the system in FY2022:
· Friend Fundamentals
· Motivational Interviewing
· Family Engagement & Attunement
· Understanding Race & Anti-Racism
· School Advocacy & Special Education Rights/Engagement
· Mandatory Reporting
Training Summary: Each chapter will have a two-week onboarding and training period with the Friends Learning Academy Onboarding Team. Detailed below, the training provided is divided between three roles: Executive Director, Program Director, and Friend. Each item is designated as required or recommended – please utilize the recommended resources as you feel your team needs.
If you have not already, please sign up for your FLA Onboarding 2-Week period here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4DACAA22A6F5C16-friends.
Please reach out to Kelsey Riordan with any questions.
Read below to review your training options for the Friends Learning Academy launch in
September through November 2021
Objective: Upon completion of the Friends Learning Academy (FLA) Basics training package, learners will have successfully logged in to the FLA learning management system and will have taken the “Introduction to FLA” Course.
Note: Training items are listed below in the recommended order for consumption.
Executive Director Training & Onboarding
FLA Demo (1-hour Live Zoom) Recommended
Program Director Training & Onboarding
System Walk-Through (1-hour Live Zoom) Required
How To Log In + Tips (30 min Video-on-Demand) Recommended
FLA Demo (1-hour Live Zoom) Recommended
Introduction to FLA (30 min Self-Guided Course in FLA) Required
FAQ Review (30 min PDF read) Recommended
Power User Training* (1-hour Live Zoom) Required
Friend Training & Onboarding
How To Log In + Tips (30 min Video-on-Demand) Recommended
FLA Demo (1-hour Live Zoom) Recommended
Introduction to FLA (30 min Self-Guided Course in FLA) Required
FAQ Review (30 min PDF read) Recommended
*Program Managers, team leads, and supervisors will be in the Friend category at this time, unless they will be ‘power users’ in which case it is recommended they attend that 1-hour training. Further training will be provided for managers, team leads and supervisors in 2022.