The Purposeful Use of Daily Life Events - Academy for Competent Youth Work

Training as an Avenue for Organizational Change

The Purposeful Use of Daily Life Events (DLE) Training
The Purposeful Use of Daily Life Events (DLE) is designed to help those who engage directly with young people and their families become more effective in their daily interactions. Through a focus on everyday events and how these events connect to the overall goals established with young people and/or families, the direct care practitioner adopts a more holistic approach in her/his interventions. DLE offers the potential to make every moment with young people and families more meaningful in reaching these established goals more efficiently. ‘Making moments meaningful’ is the hallmark of Child & Youth Care Practice. The DLE training is about “how we think about what we do.” When we think clearly, we do better work.

The DLE training defines and demonstrates the skill of using daily life events effectively and provides the opportunity for participants to incorporate this approach into their own work with young people.

Participants who complete the training receive the book, Making Moments Meaningful, a Participant’s Guidebook, a one-year subscription to the e-journal Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, and a Certificate of Completion.

While the DLE training can be taught as a stand-alone training of 12 hours, it is best experienced spread out over a period of time with follow-up meetings to deepen the participants understanding and skillfulness.

Following this training participants will be able to:

Recognize moments in daily life as opportunities for intervention and support
Describe the characteristics of a relational child and youth care approach
Articulate personal beliefs about the process of change and how that understanding impacts interactions
Integrate elements of the DLE intervention process into current practice

Class Schedule
The course is held over seven weeks and includes 1-hour self-pace and 1-hour videoconference each week. Prior to the course a meet and greet session is scheduled to meet the instructor and participants and learn how to access the course materials.

Who should attend?
The DLE training is appropriate for child and youth care practitioners, foster parents, educators, youth workers, counselors, social workers, psychologists, and professionals in prevention, treatment, juvenile justice and community settings. It is also useful for parents and adult or peer mentors.

Course Content

Each module includes a one-hour self-paced session followed by a one-hour facilitated discussion.

Meet and greet pre-session
Module 1: Introductions & Underlying Principles
Module 2: Foundations
Module 3: Beyond Behavior and Thinking about Daily Life Events
Module 4: Meaning-Making
Module 5: Themes, Opportunities & Needs-Based Approach
Module 6: Process of Change
Module 7: Intervening

This training supports the five protective and promotive factors described in the Youth Thrive Framework identified by the Center for the Study of Social Policy.

About the Facilitator and Course Creators
This training is facilitated by James Freeman, MA, CYC-P. Thom Garfat, Ph.D. is the initial developer and Heather Sago developed the online modules for the course. James is a Senior Trainer for the Academy for Competent Youth Work and a Senior Trainer for DLE and has facilitated trainer development with the creators of the Youth Thrive Training of Trainers curriculum and modules. James is co-author of the Characteristics of Relational Child and Youth Care and has published research on the impact of the DLE training, both of which can be accessed at www.training-grounds.net.

What some previous participants have said:

I loved it all – I think DLE will be very useful to practice in SA – South Africa
I really enjoyed the DLE training. It was very well presented with good trainers – Ireland
The DLE training really left us very excited. First-rate! – USA
This new approach has opened the door for more engagement and dramatically reduced the number of disruptive episodes in our program. – California
I learned new ways to help to children and families – it changed my practice! – Australia
DLE offers an amazing way to approach youth and our work! – Canada
Excellent! I will use this training in all areas of my professional and personal life – Scotland
This is the most relevant training for our work that I have experienced – Canada

The Purposeful Use of Daily Life Events provides 14 hours of continuing education for CYCCB Certified Practitioners (Competency Domain: Developmental Practice Methods). It is also recognized by Social Care Ireland.

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