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constructive communication skills is characteristic of most organizations and DSFRC is no exception. Lisa McClure, Ms. Padilla-Johnson's Executive Assistant, puts out a monthly intra- agency newsletter (with help from other departments). This newsletter provides employees and volunteers with a good snapshot of what's going on at DSFRC and we think it's excellently done for an in-house newsletter. But some of the issues that are concerning employees are not suitable for inclusion in a company newsletter and are better dealt with on a departmental level in a group meeting or one-on-one between supervisor and employee. Without proper communication and management skills, resolution is less likely regardless of the setting. We know that DSFRC has provided communication workshops to staff in the past -but there are quite a few people that are not demonstrating these skills. We recommend that DSFRC sponsor acompany-wide, required experiential training in basic communication, perhaps once per year. A good beginning training would be one in Non-Violent Communication. Additionally, if they are not already doing so, we recommend that DSFRC provide management training to departmental directors and supervisors, which has as two of its components training in conflict resolution and motivational techniques. Once staff and management have a common language and skill-set with which to ;rddress departmental level issues, there will be more of a chance to turn negative situations around (either in a meeting setting or one-on-one). Another successful approach to upgrading communication skills is to provide awell- written description, with examples, of expected, good communication protocol as part of each employee's orientation (and perhaps as part of the employee handbook). We are a big proponent of self-tests (flavored with humor) as part of training manuals. This easy- to-include tool reinforces the salient points and increases retention -especially when the employee sees the techniques and protocols in action, modeled by their supervisors and other staff members. DSFRC as an agency, and each of its departments, seem to have many meetings with objectives such as communication (what's going on), review (how are we doing), and planning (plans of action). We recommend that an organizational outline be created that looks at all of these meetings (frequency, purpose, audience, etc.) to see what picture might appear. Oue intuitive feeling, supported by some staff comments, is that there are too many meetings and yet there is a breakdown in communication along the way - especially with regards to follow-up reporting. While each program may have its own agenda for holding regular meetings, there should be a basic format that is followed each time, which might include: 1) Checking in on the status of commitments, including projects discussed in previous meetings and in the interim. 2) Acknowledgments. 3) Resolving problems as they pertain to the meeting agenda. Sustainability Study: Davis Street Family Resource Center - 4/08 Page 46 of 96