Institute for Leadership in Education Development

The Institute for Leadership in Education Development (I-LED) offers hands-on workshops and technical assistance to help US Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) grantees to improve the organization, quality, and consistency of their education and training programs.

I-LED workshops reach national, multidisciplinary audiences of OVW grantees and their constituents, including advocates, attorneys, social workers, visitation center staff, volunteer coordinators, judges, and other professionals who engage in program design and/or faculty service.

The process of planning for Learning & Leadership trainings and education has been developed and improved over the past 25 years. It involves several important steps, which should be followed in the order listed below. These steps include conducting a thorough assessment of learning needs, involving input from stakeholders, learners, and experts. Next, learner-centered objectives are designed, followed by the creation of interactive learning activities that actively engage learners with the content, their peers, and experts. Expert facilitators are then recruited and trained to lead the learning sessions or provide support in the case of self-paced learning. Finally, there is ongoing evaluation of the training/education program.

These steps are based on the theory of experiential learning and are aligned with the ideas of scholars from the 20th century who believed the following:

• Learning is a continuous process and not just a final outcome.
• All learning involves building upon previous knowledge.
• Conflict, differences, and disagreement are catalysts for learning.
• Learning requires the integration of thinking, feeling, perceiving, and behaving.
• Learning involves incorporating new experiences into existing understanding and adjusting existing understanding based on new experiences.

According to this approach, knowledge is not simply transmitted from the instructor to the learner in a one-way fashion, as is often the case in traditional education. Instead, knowledge is actively created and recreated within the learner’s personal understanding.

Goals and Objectives of I-LED Trainings

I-LED goals are to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of training and education programs supported by OVW, and improve the capacity of OVW grantees to design and deliver well-organized, highly-interactive training and education for their constituents.

I-LED workshops are offered in the following topics:

• Effective Program and Curriculum Development (EPCD) Workshop (2.5 days in-person and offered virtually over 8 weeks).
  This workshop focuses on the detailed process of designing a program and creating a training or curriculum outline. The next virtual EPCD course will be offered in 2024
• Faculty Development Workshop (2.5 days in-person and custom abbreviated virtual options are available).
  This workshop engages participants in the process of planning an educational program with an emphasis on learning how to facilitate effectively. The next in-person faculty development workshop is coming February 2024!
• Effective Facilitation Skills Workshop (2 days in-person and custom virtual options).
  This workshop focuses on effective skills to prepare for and facilitate small and large meetings.
• Distance eLearning Workshop (offered virtually over ten weeks—next cohort starts September 2023!). This workshop focuses on assisting grantees to design and deliver interactive virtual educational offerings on a budget.

Technical Assistance

Please reach out to learning@futureswithoutviolence.org to request technical assistance and/or for more information about our upcoming trainings and TA.

Online Learning Modules

• Language Access and Language Justice Learning Module

Online Tools

The Accidental Educator Toolkit

          Part One: Adapting Facilitation Skills from In-Person to Virtual

This tool offers virtual alternatives for common in-person activities, engagement strategies, and facilitation techniques.

          Part Two: Dealing with Virtual Facilitation Challenges

This tool provides tech solutions, facilitation strategies, and content suggestions to support facilitators, or “accidental educators,” adapting to individual participant and overall group dynamic related challenges in an online format.

Eleven Steps for Designing a Multilingual Accessible Education Program 

This tool gives a step-by-step guide for implementing greater language access into both in-person and virtual training events through the lens of language justice. The content is in English and Spanish.

Learning & Leadership Department Education and Training: Development and Delivery Process

This tool denotes some indicators of quality to consider when reviewing training or education materials.

Translating Your In-Person Education Online: Tips for Piecing it All Together

This tool incorporates the principles of adult learning into virtual education delivery and considerations on delivering an in-person course through e-learning.

Translating Face-to-Face to Virtual Tip Sheet

This tool provides some great tips on how to adapt traditional practices of face-to-face instruction to virtual environments.

Facilitating Support Groups Online

This tool provides resources on how to move traditional support groups online, in addition to some traditional support group resources and topics for online support groups.

Tech Tips Handout

This tool provides ten (10) key tech tips that can help you enhance your web-based offerings.

I-LED Visual Series

This page has infographics that engage andragogy and engaging in a digital space.

Adult Learning Toolkit

A Guide for Educating Survivor-Centered and Survivor-Serving Organizations and Institutions

Webinar series:

Webinar 1: Learning through Interactivity: Creating Curiosity through Learning Activities

Webinar 2: Learning through Interactivity: Creating Meaningful and Accessible Interactivity

Webinar 3: Learning Through Interactivity: How to Tell a Story, Part 1

Webinar 4: Learning Through Interactivity: How to Tell a Story, Part 2

This project was supported by Grant No. 15JOVW-22-GK-03994-MUMU awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.