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• Direct Service Provider Series 2025

  • Start
    11/05/2025
  •  
  • End
    12/03/2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    4 sessions
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    43
  • Registered
    7 registrants

  

  Join our live, virtual sessions and learn practical therapeutic theory and approaches that you can implement immediately to provide effective and efficient direct care services. Theory and techniques have been successfully modified to fit helping relationships that are not primarily therapeutic in nature. The goal of each workshop is to enhance knowledge, skill and confidence in providing effective, efficient, client-centered care.

  Topics include Direct Professional Success, Self Care, Healing (Trauma) Informed Approaches, Boundaries, and De-Escalation. Please see the learning objectives below for more information. Attendants are encouraged to define their own learning objectives, as well, for example, “I want to … feel better/have more energy at the end of the day… jump to solutions less & allow participants to work harder…use more empathy.”

  This series of four intensive workshops will be conducted in October and November (specific dates TBD). All are four-hour webinars. The goal of each session is to enhance knowledge, skill and confidence in providing effective client-centered care.

  16 hours of intensive personal online training with 6 hours of supplemental virtual training for a total of 22 hours training.

  Learning Objectives

  • Define my Success
  • Understand Self Care
  • Review Best Practices in Case Management/Navigation
  • Understand the Process of Change
  • Learn about the Care Cycle (Intake through Discharge)
  • Learn about Therapeutic Communication
  • Understand Crisis Management
  • Learn about the Care/Treatment Cycle (Intake through Discharge)
  • Apply MI and Other Skills in Work with Clients (Intake through Discharge)
  • Apply Information and Skills to Case Scenarios
  • Plan to Implement Information & Skills on the job

  Supplemental Online Trainings cover the following topics:

  1. Helper as a Person (50 minutes)
  2. Therapeutic Communication (40 minutes)
  3. Multiculturalism (1 hour 10 minutes)
  4. HIPAA (45 minutes)
  5. Mandatory Reporting (45 minutes)
  6. Stages of Change (40 minutes)
  7. Harm Reduction (30 minutes)
  8. Service Planning/Monitoring (40 minutes)
  9. Approaches to Difficult Situations (30 minutes)

  Optional Coaching Sessions - Dates TBD - 9–10:30am 

  Put theory and approaches into direct practice with Coaching. Join others who want to enhance their effectiveness and efficiency by applying Trauma (Healing) Informed Care, Motivational Interviewing & other approaches in this group setting. Melinda will facilitate discussion of relevant direct care topics and will follow your lead. Our goal is to celebrate successes and problem solve struggles with participant scenarios. Available to DSP attendees for an additional fee of  $50 per session or $160 for all four. Registration for coaching opens after DSP ends on June 29.

  Direct Service Provider Certificate: Aspire Training will provide a 22 hours Certificate of Completion for the Direct Service Provider Certification Program, documenting all hours of both in-person and online trainings.

  

  Presenter: Melinda Marasch, LCSW

  Aspire Training & Consulting

  It is my honor to do exciting work with the amazing, compassionate people in the nonprofit world! It has been my life’s passion to help others, first as a psycho-therapist and now as a consultant. I specialize in clinical supervision in the form of training (in-person and online), as well as individual and group sessions. We serve licensed and unlicensed individuals, as well as programs and organizations. I have expertise in many areas, including HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, mental illnesses and much more. I also provide coaching to clients who are motivated to maximize their assets.

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• The Dynamics of Intimate Partner Violence

  • When
    11/13/2025
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    48
  • Registered
    12 registrants

  Register

  

  Intimate Partner Violence is a silent epidemic and statistics suggest that it is more prevalent year after year. Working with individuals who currently are experiencing or have experienced intimate partner violence carries with it its own unique set of challenges and very few human services professionals receive direct training on this topic. As a result, Human Services Professionals are forced to meet these unique challenges without the tools that can help them be successful.
  

  When a victim is experiencing Intimate Partner Violence or recovering from their experience they are in a vulnerable state and critical decision-making point in their life. The awareness gained through this training will allow you to have compassionate and meaningful interactions with victims which can ultimately make the difference between making a positive or negative impact in the individuals' journey.

  This training offers an opportunity for human service professionals to acquire a more in-depth awareness of the dynamics of intimate partner violence. This will provide a better understanding of the lived experience of the victims and techniques and resources to support them. The workshop will also help identify self-care strategies to cope with the vicarious trauma human services professionals experience in dealing with intimate partner violence suffered by their clients.

  Learning Objectives

  • Understand the prevalence of and statistics about intimate Partner Violence
  • Define intimate partner violence and describe its common dynamics.
  • Recognize signs of Intimate Partner Violence
  • Identify the different ways that victims respond to and cope with intimate Partner Violence
  • Better understand the victim’s experience in IPV
  • Understand the elements of a safety plan and its importance when working with victims of intimate partner violence.
  • Understand the reasons a victim may choose to stay in a violent relationship.
  • Identify local and national resources that may benefit victims.
  • Take away concrete tools to support victims of IPV.

   Presenter: Marisol Velez Murray is the director of Marisol Homes, an extended stay shelter for single and expectant mothers and their children. Marisol is a licensed professional counselor. She specializes in populations that have experienced intimate partner violence, Latinx immigrant population, and complex trauma. She has extensive experience in mental health crisis stabilization and response and has worked in a variety of positions with individuals across the lifespan.

  Eligible for 3 hours Certificate of Completion

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• Motivational Interviewing - Dec 2,4,9,11

  • Start
    12/02/2025
  •  
  • End
    12/11/2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    4 sessions
  • Location
    Zoom webinar
  • Spaces left
    19
  • Registered
    12 registrants

  Register

  This evidence-based approach has consistently shown positive outcomes in dealing with resistance and defensiveness. Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative conversation style for strengthening a person's own motivation and commitment to change. It has been successfully used with populations where resistance is prevalent, including adults and adolescents who deal with legal problems, substance abuse and mental health issues. 

  Motivational Interviewing provides a “tool box” of techniques and strategies which will help you to be more effective in working with clients who bring a wide range of challenges. This is a four-day online training with a four-hour session each day. A broadband Internet connection and working webcam are required for participation. You must be on-camera during the event to receive a certificate of completion.

   Attendees will: 

  • Understand the basic principles and skills of Motivational Interviewing

  • Experience a collaborative versus an authoritarian communication style and see how you can effectively decrease defensiveness in clients​;​

  • Learn and practice resistance skills​;

  • Learn and practice directive skills that help move a client towards positive behavior change​;​

  • Be able to elicit commitment language from a client that is correlated to positive outcomes​;​

  • Explore proven implementation strategies that help improve your Motivational Interviewing skills in the field​.

  _____
  

  Presenter: Avani G. Dilger, MEd, MA, LPC, BC-DMT, CAS 
  Avani specializes in substance abuse prevention and treatment with adults, teens and their families. She is the founder and director of the “Natural Highs – Healthy Alternatives to Drugs & Alcohol” nonprofit program. Avani has been training professionals in in Motivational Interviewing and other evidence-based practices worldwide for over 20 years. Find out more about Avani HERE.

  Eligible for 16 hours MINT Certificate of Completion, valid worldwide.

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• Verbal De-Escalation

  • When
    12/08/2025
  •  
    9:00 AM - 2:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    46
  • Registered
    4 registrants

  Register

  De-escalation of disruptive behavior has become an essential skill, pertinent to all staff providing human services. The need for safe, effective techniques to manage the disruptive client is no longer limited to those who work with severe mental illness in residential or hospital settings.

  To add to the problem, the current de-institutionalization trend has injected thousands of individuals who once were treated on an inpatient basis, into a society which is not quite sure how to manage their behavior. Outpatient mental health facilities are being asked to service clients who formerly had inpatient care. Frequently, staff at a community-based treatment centers do not have the training or experience to manage the aggressive behaviors of clients who were once institutionalized.

  This training provides attendees with a safe, non-harmful techniques, designed to aid human service professionals in the management of disruptive clients. Strategies and specific skills for dealing with clients in varying stages of escalation will be presented and discussed. Non-restraining physical protective maneuvers will be reviewed, demonstrated and discussed. Principles of debriefing and using teaching moments will also be addressed.

  ___________
  

  De-escalation will be presented in three phases:

  • Phase 1 Avoiding escalation through Self Care and Awareness;
  • Phase 2 Anatomy of crisis development and de-escalating skill sets; and
  • Phase 3 Exit maneuvers and debriefing skills.
  

  By the end of the webinar, learners will be able to:

  • Recognize the importance of self-care in how it relates to escalating/de-escalating any situation;
  • Apply de-escalation techniques effective in approaching and reducing the • tension of an agitated person;
  • Understand the impact of their reactions on the agitated person;
  • Utilize tools to control their anxieties during interventions toward maintaining the best possible professional attitude; and

  • Describe nonverbal, para-verbal and verbal skills to maintain the best possible care and welfare, as well as safety and security, for all involved.

  _____________
  

  Presenter: Tracy L. Hutchinson, LPC, MAC, LAC 

  Tracy has been working in the field of Addictions and Mental Health for the past 40 years. Currently, through her Counseling and Consulting private practice, Tracy is a facilitator of professional growth and development for team building. See more information about Tracy HERE.

  
  

  Eligible for 5 hours Certificate of Completion
  

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• Advanced MI Training to address Trauma in Clients and prevent Vicarious Trauma in Professionals

  • When
    12/15/2025
  •  
    9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    16
  • Registered
    14 registrants

  Register

  Trauma is increasingly recognized as a driving factor for causing major mental health and addiction symptoms and can create challenges and obstacles in our work with clients. There is also a growing awareness that professionals get impacted with secondary trauma which can lead to serious symptoms and burnout. A lot of agencies are struggling to help their staff in dealing with trauma in their clients and to help their staff in preventing burnout.

  
  

  Motivational Interviewing is an evidence-based practice that is proven to support positive change for clients, but it is also an excellent skillset to prevent secondary trauma and burnout for the practitioner by changing the dynamics of not taking on the tension from our work.

  
  

  After this training you will:

  • Be able to understand and identify secondary trauma symptoms
  • Understand the neuroscience of trauma & PTSD
  • Learn how to turn trauma into resilience
  • Gain confidence in working with clients experiencing trauma

  
  

  Presenter: Avani G. Dilger, MEd, MA, LPC, BC-DMT, CAS, ADS

  Avani specializes in substance abuse prevention and treatment with adults, teens and their families. She is the founder and director of the “Natural Highs – Healthy Alternatives to Drugs & Alcohol” nonprofit program. Avani has been training professionals in in Motivational Interviewing and other evidence-based practices worldwide for over 20 years. Find out more about Avani HERE.

  
  

  Eligible for 3 hours Certificate of Completion

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• How to find Housing when there’s no Housing?

  • When
    12/17/2025
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    60
  • Registered
    Be the first

  Register

  

  As we are all painfully aware, homelessness and the lack of affordable housing are major issues in the metro Denver area. A point-in-time study conducted by the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative in January of 2023, showed 9,065 people were homeless on Monday, January 30, the night local volunteers, municipal and county leaders, outreach teams and people who were formerly homeless scattered across the metro Denver region to conduct the annual survey. That’s a 31.7% increase in homelessness compared with the survey’s findings in 2022, which counted 6,884 people.

  Come join us to learn about approaches that can be used to ensure safe and affordable shelter for all. We will:

  • Discuss current local affordable housing resources.
  • Identify and discuss ways to improve support for families in need.
  • Explore additional communication streams for up-to-date resources to best support clients.
  • Discover ways to improve community partnership opportunities for other housing resources, programs, and agency support.

  Workshop Outline

  A Deeper look at affordable housing in Colorado

  • Building a plan to locate housing resources.
  • Finding funding opportunities to help strengthen housing resources for your families.

  Create a plan to obtain specific housing resources.
  

  • Temporary housing
  • Transitional housing
  • Permanent housing
  • Affordable housing

  Types of affordable housing resources.
  

  • Preparation and timelines for housing assistance.
  • Building Partnerships to stay up to date on changes.

  Review the specific need to help match housing resources.

  • Identifying additional organizations that address specific requirements for eligibility.
  • Identify existing programs to help increase opportunities.

  Building housing resources for the most up-to-date information on affordable housing.

  • Lottery for Section 8 /Housing Choice Vouchers and other resources.
  • New affordable units and programs for eligibility.

  Two Break-Out sessions will build upon the five topics above.

  Eligible for a two-hour certificate of completion.

  

  Presenter: Marsha Brown, CORE Inspirate LLC

  Ms. Brown has a multifaceted career history that allows her to serve the community she lives in. She brings her sharpened skills and experience to help inspire and empower others. Ms. Brown has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. Her career has moved from Customer Service Manager over accounts like The Detroit Zoological Institute to NA Manager for TransUnion LLC., overseeing relationships with homeowners and FEMA guidelines. Ms. Brown’s diverse career path and "lived experience" has allowed her to build a wealth of knowledge- focusing on; advocacy for resilience, job creation; and enhancing self-sufficiency programs. Ms. Brown teaches others how to maximize best practices, advocacy, financial health, and home ownership. She served as a former Commissioner for DHA Board, an Alumni of Warren Village Transitional Housing and a seasoned Storyteller for the Close to Home Campaign to end homelessness.

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