What is PARedu?
PAR is dedicated to enhancing lives by empowering providers and other stakeholders in Intellectual Disability and Autism services by delivering high-quality learning opportunities rooted in exceptional training and continuous development. At the heart of this commitment is PARedu—an innovative platform offering a comprehensive suite of educational trainings, professional development programs, and informative webinars.
Designed specifically for stakeholders in the Intellectual Disability/Autism (ID/A) field, PARedu equips professionals with the knowledge and skills needed to provide outstanding person-centered care support and services. Led by subject matter experts, our dynamic learning opportunities cover essential topics like Leadership Development; Person-Centered Approaches; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; and emerging trends and best practices in the ID/A community.
By investing in education and professional growth, PAR is building stronger, more inclusive communities where individuals with ID/A can truly thrive.
Click here for a list of past trainings.
Interested in becoming a part of the PARedu lineup? Fill out the below PARedu Proposal Form.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Nurturing the Nurturer: Mastering Self-Care with Self-Compassion and Mindfulness to Better Care for Others
Tuesday // June 17
9:30 - 11:30 am EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
Designed specifically for caregivers and individuals in nurturing roles who often prioritize the well-being of others over their own. This course aims to shift that focus, providing practical strategies for integrating self-compassion and mindfulness into daily life to enhance personal wellness. Through guided sessions, participants will explore how cultivating their own physical, emotional, and mental health can profoundly impact their ability to care for others effectively.
Learning Objectives:
- Develop Self-Compassion Skills: Learn to practice self-compassion through mindfulness techniques, which can transform self-criticism into supportive inner dialogue, enhancing emotional resilience.
- Establish a Mindful Self-Care Routine: Gain the tools to incorporate mindfulness practices into daily life, ensuring a balance between caring for oneself and others, thus preventing burnout.
- Enhance Emotional and Physical Well-being: Understand the connection between mental health and physical health, and learn strategies to improve both, thereby increasing overall life satisfaction and effectiveness as a caregiver.
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
This training will be recorded and shared with all registrants. The recording will be valid for 30 days!
Developing a Positive Culture for Staff and Individuals
Monday // July 14
9:30 - 11:30 am EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
A high quality, positive culture is critical for your Agency’s success. In this post pandemic world filled with staff recruitment and retention issues and general societal negativity, it has become imperative to have a culture which is positive, supportive, and responsive. A culture YOU and your Staff brag about to family, friends, stakeholders and others!
In this training, participants will learn how to:
- Teach staff the “true value” of their efforts.
- Design positive messaging to Staff.
- Create a daily positive interaction diet.
- Construct an “OREO” communication message to ensure positive messaging is used when Individuals are the focus.
- Take care of self during the “stressful” times.
- Use the three secrets of positive engagement with Individuals and other stakeholders.
- Avoid the five “no-no’s”!
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
This training will be recorded and shared with all registrants. The recording will be valid for 30 days!
Frontline Supervisor Training - Two Days
Thursday & Friday // July 17 & 18
9:30 am - 12:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
You’ve just received a big promotion, a new set of keys, access to approve timesheets, and an eager team to supervise, educate, support, and lead. Problem is, nobody’s shown you how. As a frontline supervisor you are a pivotal link in the service delivery chain and the key to your organization’s effectiveness. (No pressure.) You are now completely responsible for the performance of your team, regulatory compliance, translating instructions from upper management, and staff development, all while performing a multitude of administrative tasks and helping to ensure the health and welfare of those we serve. Chances are, you could use a few new tools in your management toolbox. In these two half-days of hands-on training with Sara Sherman, supervisors will:
- Learn the 10 Fundamentals of Supervision
- Discover the secret to finding and addressing the root cause of performance issues
- Identify their own supervisory strengths and vulnerabilities
- Understand two of the most challenging employee personality types, and learn how to stop them in their tracks
- Leave with a written Supervisory Success Outline
This training is a 6-hour training split over two days. Attendees should plan on attending both days of this two-day, two-part training.
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
 Provisionally accredited by the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) for Direct Support Professionals and Frontline Supervisors.
Management Success in 2025
Tuesday // August 12
9:30 - 11:30 am EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
Agencies ask “How do we recruit and keep staff?” What we hear from staff during exit interviews is that one of the major reasons they leave is the QUALITY of their Managers and lack of feeling valued. This begs the question of how Managers have been trained – usually not well or at all. Do your managers have the basic skills and training to help minimize turnover and deal with the myriad issues they face or have they been “thrown” into their positions with little training?
This presentation will focus on 50+ Management tidbits for new Managers to use and existing Managers to consider. These tidbits will assist developing the skills necessary to improve staff morale, facilitate positive communications and help with accountability and having difficult discussions with challenging staff.
Learning Objectives:
- The importance of Communication Style
- The importance of Expectations and how to create them
- How to use a Positive Actions Log
- How to use reinforcement/praise appropriately, it’s SIC
- Why reinforcement does not work at times
- The four steps of reducing conflict situations
- The four steps of dealing with challenging staff behavior
- Five (5) Management “No, No’s”
- Five (5) Management “admonitions to heed”
- Ten (10) positive management tips
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
This training will be recorded and shared with all registrants. The recording will be valid for 30 days!
Freeing Individuals to Live Their Most Independent Lives
Thursday // August 14
9:30 am - 12:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
Do you feel like, sometimes, your staff create more dependence than independence?
We all know that the goal for the individuals we serve is to increase independence through skill acquisition, but in those day to day moments when decisions are made and supports provided, the needle sometimes doesn’t move any closer to independence, if it moves at all.
In this workshop agency leaders will learn how to teach staff to support individuals in ways that:
- Expand Individuals’ independence
- Empower individuals to develop decision making skills
- End unnecessary dependence on staff
- Make it clear when success is achieved (both for the individual and the staff)
- Support staff to create a full company culture of empowering individuals
This training is designed for trainers, frontline supervisors, managers, directors, and executives.
Provisionally accredited by the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) for Direct Support Professionals and Frontline Supervisors.
Healthy Meal Planning
Tuesday // September 9
9:30 am - 12:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
We recognize nutrition as the foundation of good health and as the source of sufficient energy to power through our days, yet we often don't give sufficient time or attention to planning and preparing healthy meals. The typical American diet is recognized as too high in sugar, sodium, and carbs, and too lacking in fruits, vegetables, and lean protein.
We ask our Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) to assist individuals to prepare healthy meals, but we don't often give DSPs the instructions they need in order to accomplish that task. The result is that DSPs can only implement their own personal meal practices, and if those practices are not in line with federal healthy eating standards, individuals do not have access to the benefits of a healthy diet.
The result is that individuals are often eating the same things repeatedly, meals are not balanced, individuals do not have access to the best possible health, and they don't experience the full enjoyment and benefit of healthy foods.
In this hands-on, train-the-trainer style workshop participants will learn:
- The basics of healthy meal planning - how to create a diverse menu, shop, and prepare meals based on an individual's preferences and a budget
- How give the individuals you serve the maximum level of ownership possible over their own meal planning and preparation, and subsequently their health
- How to accommodate busy schedules into the meal planning process
- How to develop expectations for staff around meal planning and incorporate those expectations into your agency's internal QA process
- And more...
This training is designed for trainers, frontline supervisors, managers and other stakeholders.
Provisionally accredited by the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) for Direct Support Professionals and Frontline Supervisors.
How to Have Difficult Discussions and Productive Conflict Part II
Monday // September 15
9:30 - 11:30 am EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
Conflict resolution and management is an essential skill of any leader. For an organization to grow and thrive, diverse opinions and thoughts must be welcomed and encouraged. These diverse opinions and thoughts will often result in conflict. Will this conflict propel your organization forward or bring it down?
Learning Objectives:
- Learn tactics and methods that promote and support healthy and productive conflict
- Learn the HEAT method to turn down the temperature of difficult situations
- Learn the DESC method (Describe, Express, Specify and Consequences) to hold someone accountable in under three minutes
- Learn how to be aware of your body language, tone and overall presence so you may cultivate “Cowboy Energy”
- Learn how to create effective communication expectations where your staff feels safe to say what is on their minds in a respectful manner while recognizing that difficult discussions are an essential part of any healthy organization
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
This training will be recorded and shared with all registrants. The recording will be valid for 30 days!
Stinkers! How to Motivate, Manage, and Deal with Difficult and Toxic Staff Members
Monday // October 20
9:30 - 11:30 am EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
Discover effective strategies for managing 'Stinkers'—employees whose toxic behaviors negatively impact your organization. This session provides insights on navigating challenging attitudes and fostering a positive work environment with proven effective methods.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify characteristics of difficult employees and understand their impact on workplace culture.
- Learn strategies to motivate and improve the behavior of challenging employees.
- Develop skills to manage difficult employees in a manner that is both empathetic and effective.
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
This training will be recorded and shared with all registrants. The recording will be valid for 30 days!
How to Effectively Navigate Confrontation
Monday // November 3
9:30 - 11:30 am EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
A not so secret, secret – CONFLICT permeates our lives! From mild disagreements to “finger pointing” hostility, we deal with conflict all the time. Most persons avoid conflict like the flu or a root canal, yet conflict can be constructive, informative and manageable! Are there ways to positively deal with conflict and can we manage it – YES, THERE ARE, AND YES, WE CAN!!!!
Learning Objectives:
- What conflict is and what it is not!
- The three (3) types of disagreement.
- To identify conflicts in their present positions.
- How to respond objectively and positively to conflict.
- Five (5) general conflict concepts.
- How to use the four (4) steps of conflict resolution!
- Five (5) tips when managing conflict situations.
- Three (3) strategies to use to reduce/prevent workplace conflict.
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
This training will be recorded and shared with all registrants. The recording will be valid for 30 days!
Appreciology
Monday // December 8
9:30 - 11:30 am EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
Nearly 40% of staff report leaving their jobs because of feeling “underappreciated!” The old styles of leadership are no longer effective given a new staff generation, new technologies and new issues never before encountered. Through a seriously humorous presentation Mr. Speaks and Dr. Greg will discuss the art and science of appreciation which will assist in expanding your LEADERSHIP TOOL KIT!
Learning Objectives:
- The six (6) principles of appreciation.
- Four (4) practical ways to demonstrate appreciation.
- How to hold staff accountable while using appreciative techniques.
- How to appreciate and assist with recruitment, retention and agency reputation.
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
This training will be recorded and shared with all registrants. The recording will be valid for 30 days!
PARedu Trainings are an initiative of Pennsylvania Advocacy and Resources for Autism and Intellectual Disability, a 501(c)3 organization.
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