The COFI Institute trained staff and leaders of community organizations and school districts across the country in Phase 2: Train the Trainer: Community Outreach & Action this month. Participants received an overview of the COFI model of Family Focused Organizing and learned how to support parents and families as they lead the way in winning concrete victories for their communities.

Together, the group learned strategies to move a team of community residents into action beginning with one-on-one relationship-building interviews, mapping a community and conducting a power analysis, and choosing an issue campaign. Attendees collaborated with a group of parent leaders from Melody STEM Elementary School to put their training skills into action one morning, going door-to-door in the West Garfield neighborhood of Chicago to conduct relationship-building interviews and let families know about an upcoming City Clerk’s Fines and Fees Listening Session.

We were delighted welcome participants from Madison (WI), Detroit (MI), Oak Park (IL), Spokane (WA), Newark (NJ) and Chicago.

COFI’s Phase 2 training is the companion to the Phase 1: Train the Trainer: Self, Family & Team, held in October. Find more information on COFI’s training and consulting programs here or email us at cofi@cofionline.org.