Professional Development Network for Family Support Professionals
The Professional Development Network (PDN) is a program of the UWM Helen Bader School of Social Welfare, in partnership with the Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System.
PDN provides research-based training and continuing education for professionals in home visiting, parent education, and other early childhood family support roles. For over 20 years, PDN has strengthened Wisconsin’s child and family services workforce through accessible, statewide professional development opportunities, both online and in-person.
Professional development is an essential component of work life. It provides opportunities to learn and deepen our knowledge and skills in our role and it also provides opportunities for connecting with peers and learning from their experience.
According to a recent report, Professional Development Supports for Home Visitors and Supervisors Strengthening the Home Visiting Workforce OPRE Report #2021-01 by Rebecca Peters Sarah Benatar Heather Sandstrom from January 2021, “Preservice preparation and in-service professional development are both critical to ensuring home visitors have the tools and knowledge they need to provide high-quality services to their clients. They also help to promote model fidelity—how closely home visitors are delivering services as intended.
When model fidelity is high, families are more likely to experience the benefits of home visiting. Although home visiting programs with different target populations and aims might require different approaches to training, many agree that all home visitors should have a common baseline of knowledge and skills, no matter which model they deliver.” The report also acknowledges “Continuous learning opportunities for home visitors and supervisors can help them strengthen their professional skills and feel valued by their employers (pg. 7)” This holds true for related professions in which there are similar knowledge and skills needed in working with families.
- wcwpds-mke@uwm.edu
- 414-964-7400
- 4425 N. Port Washington Road, East Lake Towers, Suite 400, Glendale, WI 53212.
Supplemental Tools for Learning
To further support transfer of learning and implementation of new skills, several of our training events have additional supports connected to them. These provide opportunities that are either integrated into the class structure or are available after a class has been completed to help sustain new knowledge and skill development. Research has shown that these kinds of supplemental tools for learning are critical for seeing a change in practice. These include the following:
Wikipedia defines a Community of Practice as a group of people who “share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” We offer several different Communities that are developed to further learning around the FAN framework, ASQ implementation, implementation of TSBIRT, the role of supervisor/ program leader, and for the role of professionals in home visiting.
Touchpoints, FAN, Lemonade for Life, Home Visitation Foundations- Participants of the training have calls or meetings to discuss implementation of content/ skills from the training and how they are being applied in everyday practice. Facilitators provide additional support for challenges and a space to deepen knowledge through peer learning and deeper discussion of application of concepts. These are built in to the structure of the class and are a part of completion of the training.
Through our website (Resources/ training implementation tab), professionals will find additional materials and ways to support implementation for specific trainings. In addition, many of our offerings provide a Padlet Web Site to training participants so that they may revisit resources and content from the training after completion of the course. To further knowledge in a variety of areas, our ‘toolkit’ also houses a variety of resources and information to enhance and go beyond the content presented in our foundational training.
What Training Do I Need?
Developing a training plan with discussion with your supervisor is important to ensure optimal impact and implementation of new knowledge and skills. It is important to consider the time needed to complete in-person and blended learning opportunities as well as to practice new skills.
This should be balanced with and program needs and the needs of the learner and how they process new information and implement new practices. It is important to space out training opportunities to allow you to process information and implement content learned.
Training Plan Factors
A training plan is often developed based on one these additional factors:
- Program/Agency requirements
- Assessment/screening tool requirements
- Topics of interest
- Areas for needed development
- Professional competencies