Announcing our New Leadership Development Program!
Hi all!
Hope you all are well! I'm writing today with an exciting update. As many of you know, we have long had two tracks of volunteer roles on 7 Cups: listeners and leaders. At present, we have 411,000 volunteer trained listeners and over 1,000 community leaders.
We have spent years building out our listener training program. If you go to our training tab (https://www.7cups.com/listener/training.php), you'll see that we have 66 courses that you can take to strengthen core listener skills as well as learn how to better help people facing specific issues or challenges. These courses are really good too. We just had our Psychological First Aid course audited by a third party and it came off as strong and meeting their requirements. I suspect most of our courses would pass any sort of third-party auditing process.
On that same page, you can click on the blue certification button at the top to look at the more in-depth Active Listening 1-10 certificate programs we provide as well. In addition to these programs, we also provide internship programs for many universities. I'm proud of our curriculum. What I love most about it is that we can provide it at no cost. It is 100% free. I think that is fantastic.
We are now starting the process of building out a leadership training program. We are hoping to train 160 new leaders and many more as new opportunities emerge (check out these slides for a list of roles and opportunities to serve). We are calling it the Leadership Development Program. If you scroll down on that same page, then you'll see a new Header and links to the overview and first few courses in this program. When we started 7 Cups (way back in 2013!) we only had the very first active listener course that you all take. Now we have 66 courses. The same will happen with the leadership domain and then eventually other domains as the needs and training opportunities arise.
I've included more information on the overall program below. Our goal is to recruit more leaders, provide more leadership training for current leaders, and launch new leadership programs to help us better scale up care for our community.
If you are interested in becoming a leader on 7 Cups, then please sign up here.
We will start the first cohort in July (the 7/10 Cohort) and will notify you when we are ready to go. Our goal is to complete one course per month. We encourage everyone interested to apply asap, the deadline for the course is 7/10. The application process will remain open even after however you will join the next cohort (8/1/2020) if you miss the deadline.
Thoughts and feedback welcome!
Glen
Leadership Development Program
The 7 Cups Leadership Development Program is designed to help you become a strong leader. The program takes a personal approach and starts with helping you identify and build upon your natural gifts and strengths. It then transitions to focusing on the core discipline of problem-solving. The next course focuses on specific interpersonal skills needed to be a strong leader on 7 Cups, including mastery of communication skills, time management, conflict resolution, and stress management. The fourth course helps you learn how to build community through group support and sub-community work on 7 Cups. The last course provides an overview of servant leadership and other foundational leadership principles.
The program includes content components (reading, watching videos, and passing quizzes to show mastery of knowledge) and practice components. There is a learning by doing practical component where you practice what you learn by serving in a community domain alongside other leaders in either the engagement or quality programs. The program utilizes a cohort model of learning. You will start the program with a group of leaders and work through the curriculum of 5 courses as a cohort. You will receive a badge for the completion of each course and Leadership Studies Certificate upon completion of the entire program.
Here's where you can read about the courses:
Course 1. Personal Leadership 101: Identify and Build Your Strengths
Course 2. Becoming a 7 Cups Leader: Best Practices
Course 3. Personal Leadership 102: The Problem is the Path
Course 4. Foundational Leadership Principles
Course 5. Community Building Course: Challenge
This post is brought to you by the Leadership Development Program Team, find out more information about the program here.
@GlenM
Honestly, the fact that we need more training in order to better ourselves as listeners is something I discussed just a day before yesterday itself by commenting on the forum post made by one of the listeners. I also tagged you thereby hoping & praying that our request gets heard unknowing that you guys were already working hard for it. For me, that was quick! I am extremely glad that my prayer got answered! ❤
I've been wanting improved/more training as I personally felt the need for it since the day I joined as a listener. Because I strongly felt that the training/mock tests we went through weren't just enough. Whilst using my member's account, I came across a few listeners who have zilch/poor knowledge about listening in general. They have no clue as to what they talk about (it is highly possible that many of the members had the same thought whilst I was their listener? And this thought just terrified me). This could be the biggest turn-off for members who are seeking help on 7 Cups' of Tea. Especially for those members who search for hours for them. They join 7 Cups' to be helped with the problem of their lives but a listener's lack of listening skills only contributes to their sufferings. I am convinced that there is always room to improve so this would definitely help all of us better ourselves.
Thank you so much for doing this.
I literally appreciate this hard work! ❤
Applied!
@lyricalAngel70 thank you for applying and glad to have you in the program! Yes, we can always improve that is for sure. One step at a time. We have come far, but still have a long ways to go. Also, if you check out the training link (under "my path") you can see about 66 other courses you can take.
@GlenM
We have come far, but still have a long way to go. I couldn't agree more. I am delighted to be a part of this training.
Definitely gonna check out those 66 courses. Thanks a lot.
Take care, stay safe.
Love, Angel. 
This sounds great Glen! I had a quick question, do you have to complete one a month, or can you go at your own pace? I would love to join it btw!
@cocoakrispies121 we will work on the first course thorugh the month of July and then start the 2nd course in August. It should not be too overwhelming (even fun I hope!). You can take your time and just pick up the next course whenever you are done or wait and just join the 3rd course. There are 5 courses in all and we will work thorugh them continuously so if you miss the 2nd course you can pick it up 5 months later when we work through it again.
@GlenM Thanks!
I am interested in this Leadership program. How do i sign up?
@Wrangler501 Great! Go here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFeU5WrT04UvHHn3FDi_0g-XL2ja3Dzh694i9EEUzSM8z3SQ/viewform
@GlenM im in multy areas already for leadership :) forum group quality and i think engagement too
@CaringBrit thank you for your service! You are welcome to join the program to furhter strengthen your skills if you like. The program will be open to all interested :)
@GlenM can join same way as the current training programme right itll be in that area ? when will these courses be released
@GlenM how do I sign up for the New Leadership Development Program? Thank you!