In the News:

After-School Training Delivered Quick and Easy to Your Doorstep

On a cold and rainy Tuesday afternoon, Eric Gurna walks to the subway and begins an hour-long trip from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Taking the A train from Columbus Circle to Utica St. in Brooklyn,  a bus and then a 10-minute walk, he arrives at the SCO Family of Services / Family Dynamics after-school program at PS 81 in Bedford-Stuyvesant where program staff is waiting for him.

Gurna is there to deliver a training session focusing on positive discipline.  Lucky (and convenient) for the after-school staffers, he is the only one who had to bear the elements in order to attend. Gurna conducts the workshop as part of TASC's highly popular site-based training program, in which specialists go directly to after-school program sites to deliver professional development.

As the director of the professional development organization Development Without Limits, Gurna will visit scores of TASC programs this year. His organization is one of more than 40 providers that offers customized professional development to after-school staffs with varying needs.

PS 81 Site Coordinator Camille Gil appreciates the fact that site-based training allows her to select a workshop that aligns with the philosophies she uses to guide her after-school program. She was thumbing through the training catalogue when the Development Without Limits training “Positive Discipline: How to Work With Kids and Not Be Mean” caught her eye. The workshop description explained the concept of encouragement rather than punishment, and Gil knew the she wanted her staff to learn those strategies.  A phone call was all it took to schedule the training she selected for delivery to her doorstep.

 "I wanted the staff to gain from the training that there are many positive alternatives to use to get the response from children that you desire," Gil says. "You don't need to use the same method all the time. You don't have to yell or be so aggressive. You can create a way to get kids focused without getting frustrated yourself."

Gurna's approach caters to his participants and recognizes that staffers want to have fun and not sit through a boring lecture. He uses a variety of activities, icebreakers and role playing to involve the participants, and by the session's end, attendees have some practical tips for improving kids behavior during after-school.

"What I hope you get out of this is a new approach to working with young people, and that's the approach of positive discipline," Gurna says.

Following the training, Gurna hops back on the bus, leaving the after-school staff at PS 81 to do what they love -- connect with kids in new and interesting ways during after-school. 

Click here (pdf) to view the TASC Site-Based Training Catalogue.