In our biggest internal training to date, 135 Playworks staff gathered in Oakland, California. Staff from 22 cities joined in workshops on AmeriCorps and Coaching to Curriculum Building and Social Media. There were great lessons were in these trainings, but also powerful was the inspiration from all the people.
We learned games and cheers, shared new ideas and played hard. A new favorite cheer came from Baltimore, "Why I ate the pie!" The game of Ninja was shared to with new staff. The Games Labintroduced brand new games, such as Hantis. One lunch time session "Innovate or Die" allowed employees to share ideas and feel inspired to act on them, including creating more academic-based games and campaigning to get Ellen Degeneres to join the movement for recess play time.
We completed the week all in one room. Themed Play It Forward, we focused on the development of our increasing number of cities. Following the ever-inspiring speaker Founder and CEO Jill Vialet,Playworks Boston and newly named Playworks Greater Newark/Greater New York shared their recent successes. Only before each city created their own strategic plan for the 2011-2012 year. And the week was not complete without some more play time. Several employees grabbed their bags Friday afternoon to fly home; we dispersed to our prospective cities feeling wiser, motivated and inspired!
Knowledge can only take you so far, but learning can take you all the way.
—Jill Vialet
