Training Services
We offer training services in participatory facilitation methods, community development and engagement, anti-racism, virtual facilitation, leadership development and more.
We provide a variety of training services. We co-design and tailor our training to meet their specific use cases and objectives. We are not a traditional consultancy; we are a non-profit whose aim is to build the capacity of the organizations we work with. To that end, we work with our partners to make sure that they feel well prepared post-training, and we offer technical assistance and ongoing support as needed until our partners are able to embed and integrate the information into their workflow.
Our training services include:
Technology of Participation (ToP) Facilitation Tools
(10+ courses offered)
ToP is a powerful collection of structured facilitation methods that transform the way groups think, talk, and work together. They enable highly energized, inclusive, and meaningful group collaboration that lead to successful outcomes. ToP courses can support facilitators anywhere along their journey, including facilitation fundamentals, strategic planning, and facilitation mastery. We offer both public courses and customized in-house courses to meet your organization’s needs. We offer the following ToP Courses:
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In our flagship course, you will learn three universally applicable approaches to help you confidently move any group from conflict or confusion to consensus and commitment. We train this course face-to-face and online.
Register for the following courses:
July 29-30, 2026 (W/Th) - Chicago, IL
November 18-19, 2026 (W/Th)- Chicago, IL
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In this course, you’ll weave together individual ToP methods into a comprehensive, step-by-step approach to help groups answer their most important strategic questions.
Register for the following courses:
December 9-10, 2026 (W/Th) - Chicago, IL
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This course follows the cycle of a community planning process, analysis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Learn both theoretical frameworks and practical tools to support authentic community engagement, community-driven and led decision-making throughout a community project planning cycle. Participants will be an interactive learning community, learning from each other in addition to the tools and frameworks shared.
Register for the following courses:
October 19-22, 2026 (M/T/W/Th) - Chicago, Location TBD
Learn more about ToP Facilitation Methods for Community Engagement
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These courses delve into the complexity and depth required for transformational change and provide you with tools to design facilitation or training sessions that meet the challenges of today.
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Explore 10 creative, insightful tools to understand group needs, delve into relevant data, and get groups on the same page to launch their work.
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This course offers a rich toolkit to keep plans and projects alive, relevant, and achievable during implementation.
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Skyrocket your facilitation skills to the mastery level and build a supportive community of practice through this intensive and stimulating year-long learning experience.
Asset Based Community Development
(Introductory + Advanced)
Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) calls for a paradigm shift in the way that community members, developers, non-profit agencies, and philanthropic organizations approach community-based work. At the heart of ABCD is a relational understanding and a prioritizing of the gifts and skills that local people bring to development efforts. ABCD supports the creation of resilient and thriving communities by teaching local people and organizations how to identify, nurture, and mobilize existing community assets and talents for change.
Anti-Racism Frameworks + Practice
We offer training, usually coupled with other organizational planning, that holds CrossRoads analysis. The training is specifically informed by Okun’s work on White Supremacy Culture and is paired with our understanding of narrative and culture change work.
Customized Courses for Community Engagement/Development
Our community engagement training includes theoretical frameworks and practical tools to support participation throughout the cycle of a community planning process, analysis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. We tailor the design of the course to meet our partners’ needs, which often includes elements of asset mapping, 1:1’s, Appreciative Inquiry, World Cafe, Ladder of Participation, Workshop Design, Open Space, and other facilitation tools.
Customized Courses for Professional Development
We co-design our training courses to meet our partners’ aims and offer modules in conflict resolution, meeting facilitation and workshop design, social styles inventory, leadership development, appreciative inquiry, community engagement, and more. We custom design our trainings as a combination of these modules or as a complement to any of the base trainings above.
Training services
Previous Partners
Inquire about Training services
Contact us to learn how we can help your community, organization, or project achieve success through participatory engagement and collective decision-making.