In an effort to meet the growing, nationwide demand for our professional development services, we held a train-the-trainer event at our headquarters in New Rochelle, NY on March 25, 26 and 28.  For this series, we invited our already established master teaching artists on our roster of trainers, Antonia Perez and Julie Kline, and identified two new teaching artists, Vincent Mraz and Penelope McCourty. In addition, Abigail Jefferson, our newly-named Education Manager, also participated in the sessions.

Our Director of Education, Annie Montgomery, oriented trainees to the ways in which Lifetime Arts assists organizations and teaching artists to build, implement and sustain Creative Aging programs; the different types of training services we offer (and hope to offer in the future); and spoke about how to work collaboratively to develop training curricula.

Day one focused on orienting the newcomers to Lifetime Arts’ organizational background, mission, and training approach. Our CEO, Maura O’Malley, our Executive Director, Ed Friedman, and our Deputy Director, Nathan Majoros, discussed their roles in the organization, the goals they have for Lifetime Arts trainers, and how our trainers play an important role in the field of Creative Aging. Day two was an all-day workshop on curriculum development by art form, and day three was all about social engagement and implementation strategies.  

“We strive to make our training as interactive and experiential as possible, and these trainers will be key in our efforts to engage our training participants in ways that are authentic, creative, dialogue driven, and purpose filled,” said Annie. She added, “Overall, the group experienced a positive and constructive work environment filled with many laughs. The training itself is a metaphor for what Creative Aging workshops ultimately  should be — full of rich and engaged dialogue, a place to learn and share our work, and be creative in building a community together.”

In addition to facilitating live training sessions, new Lifetime Arts trainers will also assist with webinars, curriculum development for training workshops, panels to review applications for grant initiatives, mentor placements, roster reviews, and online learning delivery. 

We plan to continue to grow our team of trainers, and have set up another train-the-trainer series for Fall 2019.