Spring 2025: 8 Sessions offered to BSAS Trainers based on focus group feedback:

• 1.1 Orientation to CB for BSAS TTA Providers

• 1.2 Learning Community on Adult Learning Principles  

• 1.3 Training for Trainers on Instructional Design and Incorporating High Quality Content into your trainings  

• 1.4 Training for Trainers on Incorporating Meaningful Skill-Building and Tools Into Your Trainings  

• 1.5 Learning Community on Virtual Trainings

• 2.1 Racial Equity Institute's Groundwater Presentation

• 2.2 Co-creating a Container for Racial Justice and Liberation

• 3.1 Advanced Facilitation Skills

Wednesday, May 12th, from 1pm - 4pm

• REI’s Groundwater presentation is designed to develop the capacity of participants to better understand racism in its institutional and structural forms. Moving away from a focus on personal bigotry and bias, this workshop presents a historical, cultural, and structural analysis of racism. With shared language and a clearer understanding of how institutions and systems are producing unjust and inequitable outcomes, participants should leave the training better equipped to begin to work for change.  For more about REI's Groundwater approach, please visit: Groundwater Approach | Racial Equity Institute | Developing Tools

  • Please fill out this form as your registration by May 1, 2025

  • If you cannot attend, please email marion@adcare-educational.org to withdraw your registration (we have to pay for the people who have registered and received login information, so please free up your spot if you can’t go!)

Tuesday, May 20, Afternoon TBA (2hrs, virtual)

Please join facilitators Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal, Abigail Ortiz, as we slow down and share the key “ingredients” for a trauma-responsive container, a framework developed at the Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center.  The session will focus on co-creating a container for Racial Justice and Liberation Work that centers embodiment practices at its core. The session will start with shared definitions, assumptions, and setting mutually agreed upon guidelines for engagement.  This session is open to all, regardless of facilitation experience - we are here to work on this together! Please note: Attendance at the REI Groundwater presentation on 5/12 is required to attend this 2-hour lab. The session will last 2 hours, and you are asked to commit to staying in the lab, on camera (we love food and pets) for the duration.  Space will be capped at 25. 

Participants will:

• Practice co-regulation with facilitation tools

• Practice with the “window of tolerance” and learn helpful facilitation tips for how to use it as a somatic practice during meetings

• Work in pairs to understand core assumptions and definitions and how they can provide containment when things get hard

• Try on some way to get people moving in meetings (yes even on Zoom!) as a strategy to help participants connect and metabolize material

• Leave feeling more ready to facilitate your current training engagement from a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework and practice

Registration Summary - VIRTUAL: Co-Creating a Container for Racial Justice and Liberation Work Lab (232/102)

You are encouraged to:

1. Register and attend one (or more) of these equity-focused sessions as part of Unit 2

2. Fill out this reflection form regarding the session. This can be done anonymously or with your name. This form is not an evaluation of the session you attend, but a reflection as to how the session may (or may not!) inform your trainings moving forward.

   
   

Cost: BSAS-funded TTA providers (you!) can use following code to waive the registration fee.  Please do not share this code. Grayken trainings are free and do not need a code. Code for registration through AdCare: KAVg6qng

• Voices Visions and Unusual Beliefs, Wildflower Alliance 

• 5/20 from 10am – 4:30pm, in Person (Worcester)  

• Increasing Equity in Employment Practices to Meet CLAS Standards, Human in Common 

• 5/20 and 5/21 from 9am – 1pm, virtual  

• Culturally Responsive Supervision, Ayala Livny and Mayte Antelo-Ovando 

• 5/22 from 9am - 4pm, in person (Marlborough)  

• Understanding and Transforming Language, Wildflower Alliance 

• 5/28 from 12-4pm, virtual  

• Aging With Dignity Series: Exploring the Challenges and Successes of Older BIPOC LGBTQIA+ Adults in Substance Use 

• Thursday, May 29, 2025 from 2:00 pm - 3:45 pm 

• Aging With Dignity Series: Practice and Workforce Considerations for Working with Older Adults with Substance Use and Mental Health Concerns 

• Monday, June 2, 2025 from 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm 

• Aging With Dignity Series: Aging Veterans and Co-Occurring Disorders 

• Monday, June 9, 2025 from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm 

• MA OBAT ECHO®: Cultural Considerations for Indigenous People with Substance Use Disorders, Holly Echo-Hawk, MSc/Grayken 

• Tuesday, June 10, 2025 - 7:30 to 9:00am 

Please join facilitators Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal, Abigail Ortiz, as we slow down and share the key “ingredients” for a trauma-responsive container, a framework developed at the Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center.  The session will focus on co-creating a container for Racial Justice and Liberation Work that centers embodiment practices at its core. The session will start with shared definitions, assumptions, and setting mutually agreed upon guidelines for engagement.  This session is open to all, regardless of facilitation experience - we are here to work on this together!

Participants will:

• Practice co-regulation with facilitation tools

• Practice with the “window of tolerance” and learn helpful facilitation tips for how to use it as a somatic practice during meetings

• Work in pairs to understand core assumptions and definitions and how they can provide containment when things get hard

• Try on some way to get people moving in meetings (yes even on Zoom!) as a strategy to help participants connect and metabolize material

• Leave feeling more ready to facilitate your current training engagement from a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework and practice

Register Here  for the May 27^th  Lab

Please note: Attendance at the REI Groundwater presentation on 5/12 is required to attend this 2-hour lab. The session will last 2 hours, and you are asked to commit to staying in the lab, on camera (we love food and pets) for the duration.  Space will be capped at 25. 

Cohort 2: April - June, Thursday afternoons

Training Session 1 -

Laying the Foundation for Racial Equity

Description: The purpose of this training session is to build shared understanding of racial equity concepts and the historical context of systemic racism in Massachusetts.
Learning Objectives: Upon completion of this training session, participants will be able to:

• Describe individual, interpersonal, and institutional roles in advancing equity.

• Explore historical roots of systemic racism and ongoing inequities.

Training Session 2 -

Embedding Racial Equity into Training & Group Facilitation - Part I

Description:  The purpose of this training session is identity, self-awareness, positionality and biases.  Understanding who we are as facilitators.
Learning Objectives:  Upon completion of this training session, participants will be able to:

• Describe facilitator identity, bias, and positionality.

• Explore how lived experience shapes engagement and facilitation.

• Describe how to build relational trust and manage power dynamics.

• Navigate discomfort, resistance, and challenging conversations.

Training Session 3 -

Embedding Racial Equity into Training & Group Facilitation - Part II

Description:  The purpose of this training session is practical application and intentional design of embedding racial equity into our training content and facilitation.
Learning Objectives: Upon completion of this training session, participants will be able to:

• Design equity-centered objectives, materials, and activities.

• Describe how to embed cultural relevance into content and delivery.

• Practice equitable facilitation using real-world examples.

• Identify 2-3 tools for eliciting feedback, addressing harm and supporting continuous improvement.

Affinity Groups (2 sessions)

Racial affinity spaces are intentional, identity-based groups that allow trainers to engage in deeper, more honest reflection, skill-building, and growth around race and equity within their professional practice. In the substance use and behavioral health field — where systemic racism and inequities shape both client experiences and service delivery — these spaces offer crucial support and development for trainers committed to equity-centered work. 

While affinity spaces are not mandatory, they are strongly encouraged/recommended as they enhance understanding and application of the training content.

9:30 AM-12:30 PM

Storytelling and the use of real-world examples to illustrate concepts is a powerful teaching tool for facilitators. In particular in the substance use field we put great emphasis on the voices and experiences of those who have been directly impacted by substance use challenges. Incorporating these voices and stories as well as other professional experiences significantly enhances learning by concretizing abstract concepts, supporting critical thinking, activating emotional connection to a topic, and increasing memory and retention. But how do we do it both effectively and ethically?

This three-hour virtual training will introduce key considerations in sharing real-life experiences like facilitator stories, case studies, scenarios, and participant sharing. Boundaries, ethics, intent versus impact, stigma, and equity will be explored and discussed as a group. Participants will leave with a series of prompts to guide them in choosing how and when to incorporate life experience in the classroom and a deeper understanding of how storytelling supports learning.

At the end of the session participants will be able to:

• Describe the role of real-world experience in the learning environment

• Identify at least 3 key ethical considerations for using real-world experience in the classroom

• Apply a series of prompts to guide the use of real-world experience in the classroom

• Eva: EChow@hria.org

• SarahEvan: sarahevan.colvario2@mass.gov

• Your Training Contract Manager

*Vendors will receive individualized links with their training contract's data as well as aggregate/all BSAS training vendors' data for comparison.

1. An overview of the requested data metrics;

2. An example of the survey result download;

3. Instructions on how to modify your data for submission; and

4. An example of the final submission.