Learning Agenda
A continued strength of CTOP’s approach to capacity building is its practice of leveraging the expertise of our community network to support the development of new skills and competencies for grantee partners’ staff. Over the last year, CTOP hosted the annual Grantee Partner Convening and organized three other different cross-cohort workshop series.
Grantee Partner Convening
With nearly 60 participants across all seven grantee partner organizations, the theme of this year’s convening was preparing young people for the workforce. The day began with a Problem of Practice protocol, for which organizational leaders courageously identified adaptive challenges to discuss with a small group of individuals across different organizations. The protocol supports the group to analyze the problem by asking probing questions, exploring different perspectives, and collaboratively brainstorming paths forward for the presenter. Grantee partners also shared successes through peer learning workshops, spotlighting areas of growth and effective practices from which others could learn. To end the day, Kathryn Hauser, award-winning journalist and news anchor for WTNH, moderated a panel conversation that included leaders from Nuvance Health, part of Northwell Health, and O&G Industries as well as young people, focused on how nonprofits and employers can partner together to create career pathways for young people.
PDLC Refresher Workshops
Last year, CTOP piloted a Professional Development and Learning Community (PDLC) series that supported recently promoted mid-level managers at our grantee partner organizations to build skills and competencies needed to succeed in their new new supervisory roles. This year, CTOP facilitated refresher workshops for the cohort focused on application. Participants came to these sessions with real examples of challenges from their day-to-day work, and with the CTOP team’s support they engaged in role plays of these scenarios to prepare to execute coaching and management conversations with their supervisees.
Program Model Workshops
Three of CTOP’s grantee partners – COMPASS Youth Collaborative, CTVIP, and Catalyst CT’s StreetSafe Bridgeport – work with the highest risk young people in our state who are experiencing the most severe forms of disconnection including involvement in community violence. To support the relatively more nascent programs, COMPASS Youth Collaborative hosted CTVIP and StreetSafe for a series of workshops to learn about COMPASS’s theory of change and program design along with how they use data to drive positive outcomes. With coaching from CTOP, the CTVIP and StreetSafe teams worked with the COMPASS team to apply their learnings in refining their own programs, staffing structures, and supervision systems.
Project Management Workshop
CTOP designed and delivered a training in project management, enhancing the ability of participants to plan, execute, and manage projects. During the workshop, participants identified key milestones and timelines for upcoming projects, created communications and stakeholder management plans, and drafted risk registers to better anticipate and mitigate potential challenges. After the workshop, CTOP’s Portfolio Associates, Emily Bonzagni and Zari Havercome, provided one-on-one coaching to a subset of participants to support the planning and successful execution of their projects while strengthening organizational systems for effectively managing projects.
The CTOP team will continue to be responsive to the learning needs of our grantee partners, developing more opportunities for them to learn and grow alongside and from one another in the year ahead.