In response to the ever-increasing expense of training, Starting in January 2019, the National Animal Care and Control Association (NACA) will be partnering with Justice Clearinghouse to offer webinars on a monthly basis to the NACA audience.
Why are the Justice Clearinghouse & NACA partnering on webinars?
Aaron Gorrell: Our partnership evolved quite naturally. We were initially introduced to John Thompson, incoming director of the NACA, through a fellow speaker, Dr. Melinda Merck, who shares John’s passion for stopping animal abuse. Starting in June 2018 we began producing webinars for the National Sheriff’s Association on a variety of animal welfare, jail, and law enforcement related topics. And in just the past five months, we have completed 14 webinars with over 2,500 attendees!
John Thompson: I have really enjoyed the process – both how Justice Clearinghouse manages the process, interacting with the speakers, and building an audience for each webinar. And after experiencing working with the JCH team directly, I knew they were a team NACA should partner with. From an organizational perspective, the partnership allows us to leverage each other’s unique abilities and resources to better serve our members.
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My vision is to provide rich training opportunities
in an effective and affordable format
to animal care professionals throughout the country.
~John Thompson
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What topics of interest to animal welfare professionals will the webinars cover?
Aaron: In 2019, we will be adding at least one NACA sponsored webinar per month to augment the eleven webinars we have already coordinated with the National Law Enforcement Center on Animal Abuse. These webinars will focus on issues that are important to animal welfare professionals. For example, our February webinar with the NACA’s own Adam Ricci will focus on Advanced Components of Animal Cruelty Investigations.
While the live webinars are free to attend, Justice Clearinghouse individual and organizational paid subscribers will have access to the recorded webinar, the presentation materials and a workbook that we custom craft based on the content from each webinar. In the coming months, we will be working with the NACA- board to configure our webinars to provide NCO continuing education credit.
NACA members will also have access to the range of webinar topics JCH is producing in other topic areas. For example, if you check out our Leadership Feature page you’ll see our topics range from Managing Diverse Generations to improving Communications Skills and even Preventing Workplace Violence. We always try to bring presenters who understand the multi-disciplinary nature of our business and the need to work productively and collaboratively with our justice counterparts across the spectrum.
Justice Clearinghouse’s mission has always been to bring conference-quality presentations to all justice organizations – straight to your desktop in a “year-round virtual conference” so that everyone can benefit from the amazing information and insights these experts share.
John: That’s what I really like about the partnership: learning doesn’t stop after a training or attending a conference. We’ll be able to continue to support our members ongoing needs with a team who does webinars all the time for the animal care community.
How long are webinars, what will they cost and when do they broadcast?
Aaron: Currently, Justice Clearinghouse webinars are held on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 1 PM and 3 PM Eastern time (up to six webinars per week). Webinars are one hour of training or “lecture” followed by 10-15 minutes of live Q&A. All webinars are free to attend live. Check out our calendar of upcoming events – just be sure to check back often because it changes on a daily basis!
John: Aaron and the team have been very open to discussions about how to best support the NACA community. We’re looking forward to developing more ideas that will continue to support your needs.
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Justice Clearinghouse’s mission has always been to bring conference-quality presentations
to all justice organizations – straight to your desktop in a “year-round virtual conference”
so that everyone can benefit from the amazing information and insights these experts share.
~Aaron Gorrell
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What advantages does the JCH/NACA partnership offer time-pressed animal welfare professionals?
Aaron: The reality is that our organizations face a lot of the same struggles: shrinking budgets, access to training, meeting community challenges, adapting to change, the role of technology, etc. And – let’s be real – there are only so many hours in the day.
Justice Clearinghouse was founded to address the challenges organizations face in keeping up with the latest and greatest best practices. Moreover, we know that many agencies can’t afford to send even one person to a national conference – let alone then backfilling that person’s shifts with other staff.
We seek to maximize the impact of every webinar by keeping the following question in the back of our minds: How will the audience member turn around and immediately use this information at work tomorrow or the next day? We encourage our speakers to have this type of practical approach to their webinars.
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That’s what I really like about the partnership:
learning doesn’t stop after a training or attending a conference.
~John Thompson
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What benefits do you think this partnership brings to animal welfare professionals overall?
Aaron: The whole dynamic of learning has changed. Thanks to advancing technology, the world has shifted from learning taking place only in a classroom setting, during a limited period of time where participants are often subjected to ‘firehose’ quantities of information, to a 24×7, on-demand approach. There’s a place for in-person training – and some people learn best that way. But due to the changing nature of law, professional expectations, and technology, most of us will have to incorporate the “lifelong learning” approach to our careers in order to stay current.
And that’s what this partnership strives to accomplish: to help the JCH and NACA membership continuously grow in the profession so they can continue to address the many evolving challenges facing our communities.
John: My vision is to provide rich training opportunities in an effective and affordable format to animal care professionals throughout the country.
