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 education and training programs.

I-LED has a national focus, targeting assistance to any OVW grantees that conduct education and training programs as part of their missions to enhance the justice system and community responses to all forms of violence against women.

Since it began in September 2008, the I-LED project has served over 700 multidisciplinary staff and consultants representing over 300 organizations that receive funding through OVW grant programs. I-LED workshops reach national, multidisciplinary audiences of OVW grantees and their constituents, including advocates, attorneys, law enforcement, social workers, visitation center staff, volunteer coordinators, judges, and other professionals who engage in program design and/or faculty service.

The Learning & Leadership training/education planning process, developed and refined for the past 25 years, includes several key steps, which planners should conduct in the order outlined below. These steps are to conduct a robust learning needs assessment informed by stakeholders, learners and experts; design learner centered objectives, create interactive learning activities that engage learners with content, peers and experts; recruit and develop expert facilitators to lead or supplement (in the case of asynchronous education) learning; and ongoing evaluation. These steps are based in experiential learning theory and formulated in accordance with 20^th century scholars that believed:

• Learning is a process, not an outcome
• All learning is relearning.
• Conflict, differences, and disagreement drive the learning process.
• Learning involves the integrated functioning of the total person—thinking, feeling, perceiving, and behaving.
• Learning involves assimilating new experiences into existing concepts and accommodating existing concepts to new experience.

Knowledge is created and recreated in the personal knowledge of the learner. This stands in contrast to the “transmission” model on which much current educational practice is based, where pre-existing fixed ideas are transmitted to the learner.

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:

1. Effective Program and Curriculum Development (EPCD) Workshop (2.5 days). Has been offered in-person AND virtually.
   This workshop focuses on the detailed process of designing a program and creating a program or curriculum outline. 
2. Faculty Development Workshop (2.5 days).
   This workshop engages participants in the process for planning a program but in the context of learning how to facilitate programs effectively.
3. Effective Facilitation Skills Workshop (2 days).
   This workshop focuses on effective skills to prepare for and conduct facilitation of small and large meetings.
4. Distance Learning Workshop (2.5 days). Has been offered in-person AND virtually.
   This workshop focuses on assisting grantees to design and deliver distance learning educational offerings on a budget.

Online Learning Modules

• Language Access and Language Justice Learning Module

Online Tools

NEW! 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.

NEW! 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