NHTI, Concord’s Community College, Office of Residence Life is a featured program.
NHTI-Concord’s Community College has designed a training program that encompasses a wide array of areas.
Instruction: Many departments across campus are utilized to help mix up the presenters and create awareness by the resident assistants of who the various staff members of the college are. The residence life staff also prioritizes teaching the staff about a variety of issues that college students face. This is in an effort to prepare the paraprofessionals staff not only on the “how to’s” of their jobs but to develop their levels of compassion and empathy.
Team Building: This is another theme that pervades the training process. There are opportunities for RAs to bond not only with their immediate staff but also develop inter-staff relationships.
Utilization of a Theme: This fall, NHTI used The Hunger Games as the RA training theme. The staff was broken into “Districts” and they competed with the other “tributes” throughout the week. On the first night of training the staff in their districts created banners to represent them during the competitions through the week. Short one minute competitions are also used to face the staffs against each other during meal times. The winners of these competitions are recognized at the Close of Training Banquet.
Instructional Topics – The Basics: Skill based topics that were presented during training, including Programming, Mediation, Duty, Community Building, Confrontation, Drug Class, Crisis Management, Incident Report Writing, Fire Training, Blood Borne Pathogens, and Behind Closed Doors. Informational Sessions that were presented were Policies & Procedures, RLAGS (Residential Life Association of the Granite State), Academic Center of Excellence, Violence Against Women Act, Cleary and CSA Training, and Policy Jeopardy.
Instructional Topics – Beyond The Basics: Sessions offered to inspire empathy and service leadership were Mental Health Issues, Leadership Lessons, Sexual Assault Discussion, Spinning the Wheels, Diversity Bracelet Activity, and Gender Identity Training.
Beyond Residence Life: NHTI also offers a “Big Cat” Lunch (their mascot is the Lynx) to introduce the staff to the college’s leadership team and department heads of student services.
To learn more about the NHTI RA training program or to get a copy of their schedule, feel free to contact the Director of Residence Life, Trish Loring at tloring@ccsnh.edu .