Leading an organization, community group, or gathering of any size can be stressful and frustrating without the skills necessary to engage and manage a group.

To help make meetings more productive, Virginia Cooperative Extension is offering a two-day training that teaches effective facilitation principles and practices.

The Strengthening Your Facilitation Skills training offers participants the opportunity to learn and demonstrate facilitation skills, observe facilitation challenges, and identify practices that will prepare them to develop and guide the facilitation process. Those who have completed the program report feeling more comfortable planning and leading meetings.

“Organizations and community leaders want to know how to facilitate discussions that result in planning and clear direction,” said Martha Walker, community viability specialist with Virginia Cooperative Extension. "Anyone who is leading a group through a decision-making process or through a discussion would benefit from this training."

The training is scheduled for four locations across the commonwealth:

·      Virginia Beach, June 27-28, Advanced Technology Center

·      Charlottesville, July 31-Aug. 1, Center for Nonprofit Excellence

·      Abingdon, Sept. 12-13, Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center

·      Richmond, Oct. 24-25, location TBD

The complete schedule is available at http://ext.vt.edu/community-leadership/leadership/training-schedule.html. Additional trainings will be scheduled on request.

To register for Strengthening Your Facilitation Skills, visit http://tinyurl.com/2017facilitation. The fee for the training is $110, which is due at least a week prior to training. Participants receive a resource notebook and lunch both days.

For additional information, contact Martha Walker at 434-766-6761 or email walker53@vt.edu.

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