( 2 day training – limited to 30 participants )

This two-day, highly interactive and hands-on training is offered for probation/parole staff, juvenile justice staff, treatment community, supervisors and case managers - all those interested it working with juvenile and adult offenders in direct practice with mandated offenders. Strength-based practice will focus on techniques rather than theory so those practitioners can take helpful methods back to their jobs.

Module highlights include:

• Strength-based Practice: Raising Offender Resources and Motivation
• Perceptions, Participation and Values: Overcoming Obstacles to Positive Behavior Change
• The Link Between Personality Types and Motivation: Finding the Real Colors® of Your Department Staff and Clients
• Strength-Based Techniques for Challenging Clients
• Brain Issues of Cognition, Reasoning and Risk-Taking: Why Do Offenders Think and Act So Differently?
• Strength-based Assessments: How to Find and Amplify Strengths for Effective Interventions
• Utilizing a Strength-Based Lens: Change the Viewing to Change the Doing

Upon completion, participants attending this training will be able to:

• Understand the mechanics to performing Strength-based assessments.
• Be able to identify at least three strategies for raising cooperation and motivation.
• Understand the important link between personality differences and client engagement
• Discuss at least three important brain-based issues for offender supervision
• Discuss strategies that will increase “buy in” and ownership of the defendant for offender treatment plans

Participants' Comments from Previous Trainings:

"I learned to focus on the defendants strengths and not dwell on the negatives."
"PSI writing could focus on positives not negatives."
"I learned to see issues as an opportunity for future change rather than as problems."
"The most informative and exciting workshop I have been to since being a probation officer."
"I will be recommending this training highly - Must training for everyone!"
"Many, many thanks! This was a breath of fresh air!!"
"This should be required training (at least for new hires) so that they will have a choice on how to work with offenders."

About the Presenter:
Michael D. Clark, MSW, LMSW, is a trainer and consultant to organizations working with mandated clients and is a national faculty member (contractual) for the U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health & Human Services (DHHS). Mr. Clark has previously held positions for 18 years as a Judicial Referee and a Senior Probation Officer with the 30th Judicial Circuit Court in Lansing, Michigan. He is now the director of the Center for Strength-Based Strategies that is committed to the research, development and training of strength-based strategies for work with mandated populations. Mr. Clark has published numerous articles on strength based practice and solution focused work with mandated clients and is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). He is known nationally as a strength-based consultant to Juvenile Justice, Community Corrections, Substance Abuse, Child Welfare, and Mental Health, and has presented throughout the United States, as well as Europe, Canada, the Caribbean and Micronesia. With more than 30 book chapters and articles to his credit, Michael has valuable information to share for working with challenging clients.

( 2 day training limited to 30 participants )

This two-day training is the second in the skill-based training series: Strength-Based Practice Series for Community Corrections Professionals. This advanced training focuses on direct practice application. Seven modules will be presented over the two days, utilizing multimedia presentations, interactive lecture and facilitated small and large group exercises. A mixture of small group discussions, videos, case scenarios and full room exercises keep the training pace lively and engaging.

In the face of so many problems and failures by probationers, how does the officer find optimism to believe in the offender’s ability to change? Many probation departments are turning to a more positive, constructive way of solving human problems. Strength-based practice seeks to find the balance between repairing weakness and amplifying strengths. Probation has long been concerned with uncovering a person’s deficits, weaknesses, and problems. The most overlooked resource in the field of probation and parole are the resources of the offender. Learn how to bring Strengths into your everyday work.

Module highlights include:

• The Classification of Strengths: Positive Measures of Character Strengths and Resources
• From Conceptual to Street Level: Bringing Strengths into Your Everyday Work
• Giving Aid and Comfort to the Enemy: Helping Efforts That Give Problems Too Much Power!
• Strengthening the Staff-Client Alliance: The Rise of Outcome-based Evidence
• Resilience Understood: Moving Clients from Surviving to Thriving
• How Goals Fail—Where Solutions Come From: Learning Just Enough About the Strengths Approach To Be Ineffective
• Integration Issues: Moving A Strengths Orientation From “Good Idea” to Bedrock of Services

Upon completion, participants attending this training will be able to:

• Describe the importance of client factors and how the staff/client relationship is a driving force to court outcomes
• Discuss the current research into identifying and classifying offender strengths and how strengths can be incorporated into offender programming
• Describe at least three dimensions of hope and understand how increasing the offender’s sense of hope can improve justice outcomes
• Describe the limitations of instrument-driven measurement for building alliances
• Be able to identify where solutions originate and how utilizing offender’s perceptions will increase productivity

About the Presenter:
Michael D. Clark, MSW, LMSW, is a trainer and consultant to organizations working with mandated clients and is a national faculty member (contractual) for the U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health & Human Services (DHHS). Mr. Clark has previously held positions for 18 years as a Judicial Referee and a Senior Probation Officer with the 30th Judicial Circuit Court in Lansing, Michigan. He is now the director of the Center for Strength-Based Strategies that is committed to the research, development and training of strength-based strategies for work with mandated populations. Mr. Clark has published numerous articles on strength based practice and solution focused work with mandated clients and is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). He is known nationally as a strength-based consultant to Juvenile Justice, Community Corrections, Substance Abuse, Child Welfare, and Mental Health, and has presented throughout the United States, as well as Europe, Canada, the Caribbean and Micronesia. With more than 30 book chapters and articles to his credit, Michael has valuable information to share for working with challenging clients.