Changes

Training

changes develops and delivers public courses and bespoke training for clients in public, voluntary and community sectors in subjects relating to community development, community engagement, active citizenship and influence.

Public courses

We run a short programme of courses each year which typically includes courses such as:

• Introduction to Community Development
• Planning & Evaluating Community Empowerment & Community Wellbeing (a 2 day course based on the DiCE framework)
• Introduction to Community Engagement
• Community Influence (an introduction to the `voice’ tool)
• Empowering Public Agencies (an introduction to the `echo’ tool)
• Active citizenship

Our public training programme takes place in Birmingham and usually consists of one-day courses, costing approx. £150+VAT

Contact us for details of the latest programme: training@changesuk.net

Bespoke training courses

Members of the changes team have been developing and delivering training for more than 20 years and each programme is unique!

• We are keen to know what clients want from our courses, so we can adapt and tailor them, or design something specific
• We never start completely from scratch – the training we offer is around particular areas of work where we already have experience, stories, ideas and resources which we make best use of
• We bring ideas, information, concepts and examples to the training and we encourage participants to share their own experiences and understand the subject from their own position – so it is real and applicable for them
• We offer training around particular frameworks that others have found useful and which are tried and tested
• We also offer training which is subject specific – often linked to government priorities
• We offer half-day taster sessions on our tools and frameworks:
  • DiCE
  • voice
  • echo

Pricing

We want to make our courses affordable and believe that we offer good value for your money. The whole point is about sharing and learning. As a ball park you can work out our costs based on:

• £1,000 per day for delivery (evaluation and facilitator courses are 2 days, most of the others can be delivered in one day)
• £200 for preparation (add another £200 if this is substantial)
• Taster sessions are usually about £500
• We also do ‘packages’ of courses, follow-up days, mentoring and support
• Add in reasonable costs for travel, accommodation and subsistence (we don’t need posh and expensive – just somewhere you would be happy to stay yourself!)
• We usually write up basic notes from a session – if you want anything more detailed then speak to us about costing this separately
• Add VAT at the current rate

Clients

We are commissioned to deliver training by different organisations across sectors. Below are some examples, please see ‘our clients’ for a full list.

• Dosti (Dudley Community Empowerment Network): a two-day course for facilitators wanting to work with the `voice’ tool
• Metropolitan Police Authority: a two-day course for facilitators wanting to work with the `voice’ tool
• Canterbury City Council: a one day course on an `Introduction to Community Development’
• Shoreline Housing Partnership (Cleethorpes): a two day course linking group work to community development for neighbourhood officers (delivered with Steve Skinner Associates)
• Age Concern England: a one day course on `Exploring Community Development and what it can offer to Age Concern Organisations’
• Hostels Liaison Group (Nottingham): a one day course on `Managing Aggression at Work’
• Sharrow Partnership (Sheffield): a two-day course on Planning and Evaluating Community Empowerment and Community Wellbeing
• The Wildlife Trust: a one day course on an `Introduction to Community Engagement’
• Blackburn & Darwen Council: a one day course on `Influence’ introducing the voice tool to facilitators working with groups