Group Training

PCA Iowa is dedicated to enhancing the skills and knowledge of anyone who wants to help prevent child abuse in the state. Our group training opportunities are listed below. Please contact us for additional information.

3R’s

Rights, Respect, Responsibility is a curriculum that fully meets the National Sexuality Education Standards. The curriculum addresses both the functional knowledge related to sexuality and the specific skills necessary to adopt healthy behaviors. Rights, Respect, Responsibility reflects the tenets of social learning theory, social cognitive theory and the social ecological model of prevention.

Affirmative Consent

Learn how to bring affirmative consent into lessons on comprehensive sexual health. Six good reasons to include this information in your lessons: Build communication skills; Positive, respectful frame about personal choice; Shifting cultural norms; Prevent sexual assault; Law and policy; Recognize new social paradigms and address negative gender roles.

Connections Matter Workshop

Connections Matter is a community effort. We want everyone to know that fostering caring relationships with the children, families, and adults in your life matters for developing healthy brains, supportive relationships, and thriving communities. Through an interactive, discussion-based curriculum this workshop develops knowledge surrounding the importance of trauma informed practices in mitigating negative physical and mental health outcomes by teaching how to build relationships and resilience.

Training is available as a workshop for members of the community or members of the education sector.

Connections Matter for Education Workshop

Connections Matter is community effort, and schools are an integral part of every community. We want everyone to know that fostering caring relationships with the children, families, and adults in your life matters for developing healthy brains, supportive relationships, and thriving communities. Through an interactive, discussion-based curriculum this workshop develops knowledge surrounding the importance of trauma informed practices in schools by focusing on how to build relationships and resilience.

Connections Matter in Early Childhood

Developing longer, more consistent relationships promote healthy development and well-being in children. It also creates a better experience for caregivers, who build deeper bonds, come to understand children better, and see a decrease in negative behaviors. Connections Matter in Early Childhood help participants to understand childhood trauma and its impact, support children who have had Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), create environments that build healthy brains, Interacting with children in ways that support their emotional, social, and intellectual development, help parents respond to their children with attention and empathy, and cultivate resilience in yourself and the children you care for.

Connections Matter in the Workplace
In this Connections Matter training, organizations will learn how to cultivate resiliency amongst their employees to cope with difficult experiences, better communicate about serious issues that affect workers, and build on their existing best practices to foster supportive professional relationships amongst employees that contribute to a positive and productive workplace environment. The curriculum applies to leaders and workers at small business, large corporations, nonprofits, government agencies and other workplaces.
Connections Matter Facilitator Training

Connections Matter Facilitator Training develops the skills and competencies to become a Facilitator of the Connections Matter curriculum. During this two-day training, participants will gain knowledge about adverse childhood experiences, toxic stress, trauma, building relationships and fostering resilience. We want everyone to know that fostering caring relationships with the children, families, and adults in your life matters for developing healthy brains, supportive relationships, and thriving communities. As a Connections Matter Facilitator, you too can spread this message.

Draw the Line / Respect the Line

An evidence-based curriculum that promotes abstinence by providing students in grades 6, 7 and 8 with the knowledge and skills to prevent HIV, other STD and pregnancy. Using an interactive approach, the program shows students how to set personal limits and meet challenges to those limits.

Families Thrive

This curriculum helps community members, practitioners, and program operators support children, youth, young parents, and caregivers using a protective and promotive factors approach. This curriculum includes elements from the Center for the Study of Social Policy’s Strengthening Families and Youth Thrive curricula pulled together into an integrated approach to reducing risk factors and promoting protective and promotive factors across childhood into emerging adulthood.

Foundations of Teaching Sexual Health

A strength-based LGBTQ friendly structure workshop designed for new staff, community members/leadership, school educators, coalition members, and others as they work in the sexual health and pregnancy prevention arena.  Topics covered: comprehensive sexual health, healthy relationships, language and sex terms, myths, facts, consent/rejection, and contraceptive demonstrations. Sex 101 is created to educate and help individuals feel more comfortable talking and discussing comprehensive sexual health.

Healthy Relationships Project: Care for Kids

An early childhood sexual abuse prevention curriculum used by teachers, childcare providers, and parents. Topics include communication skills, nurturing skills (empathy), body parts, developing positive attitudes toward sexuality, and understanding of healthy boundaries.

Healthy Relationships Project: We Care Elementary

An elementary school sexual abuse prevention curriculum in which teachers are trained and supported to deliver developmentally appropriate information.

Healthy Relationships Project: Safe-T

SAFE-T is a developmentally appropriate, trauma informed, positive health education program. It is designed to decrease the likelihood of youth being sexually abused and/or sexually abusing others.

Human Trafficking

A workshop designed for individuals involved or caring for young people.  Vulnerable individuals are often targets of human trafficking where the intended victim loses control over the situation and becomes a victim of labor and/or sex trafficking. The workshop will cover local human trafficking data, warning and grooming signs, best practices in helping to reduce the vulnerability/ risk and increase protection with high-risk youths. It will provide activities, resources, and guiding principles for working with human trafficking prevention.

Nurturing Healthy Sexual Development

This training will prepare participants to deliver the Nurturing Healthy Sexual Development curriculum. This program provides adults with information and skills to develop and maintain open communication with children, identify and respond to normal as well as concerning sexual behaviors in children, answer children’s questions, and give children positive messages. Nurturing healthy sexual development plays an important role in protecting children from sexual abuse and/or developing sexually abusive behaviors. Participants learn to: a) summarize healthy sexual behaviors of children at different developmental stages; b) give examples of how to nurture healthy sexual development in children. This program is for teachers and care givers of children of all ages, with a particular emphasis on infants through after school.

Overcoming Barriers to Protecting Children from Sexual Abuse

Participants will: Distinguish healthy behaviors from boundary violations and pre-offending behaviors; Practice directly addressing concerning behaviors. Individuals and communities have a strong desire to prevent child sexual abuse. However, they often face barriers to protecting children, including having relationships with those exhibiting concerning behaviors. In this workshop participants will consider what adults can do to assist communities in overcoming these common barriers to protecting children, creating safe spaces through a trauma-informed lens. This training is useful for infant through after-school teachers, educators, staff at youth-serving organizations, social workers, volunteers for children, mentors, coaches, professionals in many fields, parents, caregivers, grandparents, and foster parents.

Parent Engagement

Effective parental engagement develops leadership skills and supports a program’s success. Many programs struggle with knowing how to engage and maintain involvement of these parents. This training will help programs maximize relationships with parents and provide strategies and tools to effectively engage program participants.

SAMHSA’s Trauma-Informed Approach: Key Assumptions and Principles

This training provides an introduction to trauma and trauma-informed approaches in behavior health and human services.  No prior knowledge about trauma is necessary. The material is intended for a wide range of audiences and will provide a basis for more advanced work in developing trauma-informed environments and practices.

Sexual Abuse Prevention

A workshop on child sexual abuse helps participants understand possible risk factors and more. The training covers child Abuse 101 information, including “red flags” and reporting procedures and an in-depth look at victims, offenders, and the victim-perpetrator relationship. With this in-depth workshop, participants gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics involved so that children’s normal, healthy and unhealthy sexual behaviors can be addressed.

Stewards of Children

Using the 5 Steps to Protecting Our Children™ as a framework, Stewards of Children® is a two-hour training that teaches adults practical actions to prevent child sexual abuse or intervene if abuse is suspected. Featuring compelling and engaging content to motivate participants, the program is designed for parents, concerned individuals, and any adult that works with youth. Through Stewards of Children®, over 1,000,000 adults have been trained to protect children from sexual abuse.

TECHNICOOL

There are multiple kinds of digital risks for children today, such as internet pornography, online groomers, and sexting. It is important for caregivers and teachers to have the information and tools to respond. Adults in this workshop will learn the digital risks for children and strategize ways to keep children and youth safe in digital environments and learn effective strategies for dealing with children exhibiting concerning digital behaviors.

What is Child Abuse?

Includes information on all types of maltreatment including physical and sexual abuse, and neglect. This workshop covers important information such as definitions and statistics, “red flags,” and reporting procedures.

Youth Mental Health First Aid

Youth Mental Health First Aid is primarily designed for adults who regularly interact with young people. The course introduces common mental health challenges for youth, reviews typical adolescent development, and teaches a 5-step action plan for how to help young people in both crisis and non-crisis situations. Topics covered include anxiety, depression, substance use, disorders in which psychosis may occur, disruptive behavior disorders (including AD/HD), and eating disorders.