Training Model
Training is Firefly’s core activity. After selecting a new city or region in which to work, Firefly begins by researching its healthcare, education, and social services providers. Next, Firefly selects pilot sites and training participants who are ready to develop early intervention programs and family support services. This is followed by a series of lectures for managers and a three-year educational program for direct care providers to prepare them to administer and conduct these new programs and services.
The first two years of the educational program feature approximately 10 week-long seminars that are conducted by teaching teams made up of Firefly’s Russian and US healthcare, education, and social services experts. Each seminar includes 5 full days of lectures, demonstrations of new therapies, and analyses of concrete cases. During case analyses, client families come in for consultations with a teaching team while the trainees observe. The team demonstrates how to interact with the families to assess their strengths and weaknesses, and how to create short- and long-term support plans for them. By using individual families as case studies, Firefly is not only imparting new skills and knowledge, but also modeling how to work with other families as an interdisciplinary team.
Firefly concludes the educational program with a third year of bi-monthly, week-long supervisions of the trainees at work. These supervisions, conducted by Firefly’s Russian experts, ensure that the trainees have the knowledge and skills required to conduct early intervention programs and family support services. To date, early intervention teams have continued to successfully serve children and families in all of the cities where Firefly has completed its educational programs.
Training Impact
Firefly is proud to provide Russian healthcare, education and social services providers with progressive training based on international best practices. Read about the impact of these training seminars on recent attendees:
“I have a better understanding of children with disabilities and a greater desire and ability to help them.”
“Your seminar really inspired us to further our work. We received a lot of new, modern data about autism, and learned new methods of working with such children. We are very grateful to your team for providing us with this possibility.”
“The benefit of the seminar is enormous and goes far beyond purely professional interests. The life of each individual and the quality of this life merits our efforts in this area…the care system should be tailored to cater to the individual that needs help.”
“Once we began speaking to mothers, we understood how important this work is….We hope this program will help solve many issues….and that there will be fewer abandoned children.”
Training Schedule
For a schedule of upcoming seminars or to see sample topics from past training sessions, please click here. Slideshow presentations from past trainings are available in the resource library.
Presenter Opportunities
If you are a healthcare, education or social services specialist with extensive early intervention experience who is interested in volunteering time and expertise to conduct a training seminar, please click here to learn about Firefly’s specific needs and qualifications.
