Central Valley Afterschool Foundation recently delivered three four-hour training sessions on behalf of Region VII entitled “Afterschool Talent: A New Era for Recruitment and Retention.” The overriding goal of the training is to teach techniques and stimulate critical dialogue about workforce recruitment and retention to improve effectiveness.

The interactive training included a variety of hands-on activities and discussion within the following topics:

• Afterschool Program Brand
• Job Sourcing and Marketing Examples
• Interviewing Techniques
• Onboarding
• Staff Engagement
• Leadership and Management
• Coaching and Development
• Generational Understanding

Participants included afterschool program directors, project specialists, site coordinators, human resource managers and community-based organization representatives. With an average satisfaction rating of 4.7 (5 being the highest score), evaluation comments about the training include:

• “This is thus far the best training I've attended.  Material was so relevant and tangible/realistic.  Also got ideas and examples.“
• “I'm walking away with tons of tools.”
• “All the info we received is material I can not only use, but is innovative.
• “I felt like the entire training not only talked the talk but walked it.  I feel like we received a demo about how to make staff feel appreciated.”
• “There was lots of great information that I will take back to my site and implement.”
• “The information opened my mind to things that I never thought would matter.”
• “This training will help me focus on the aspects of my job that I have been missing to do.”

Thank you to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for their support of this regional training. To offer this training in your area, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .