Sourcewell is excited to host our annual Sourcewell Adult Foster Care Conference in partnership with the counties we serve which include: Becker, Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Hubbard, Todd, Wadena, Otter Tail, and Douglas Counties. This virtual conference will give you an opportunity to learn about the evolving changes around family adult foster care and community residential settings and provide you with relevant professional development. Each participant will receive 5 hours of professional development.

You will have an opportunity to ask questions from the Regional Licensing Specialists from Sourcewell, the Department of Human Services, and the Fire Marshal prior to the event. Please e-mail any questions to licensing@sourcewell-mn.gov by Friday, April 18th, 2025.

Would you like to know how to have a cohesive AVID system at your school? Come and spend a day with Shannon Bailey and Karin Swainey reviewing the AVID framework, learning and collaborating with other administrators from AVID schools in the region. You will learn what AVID can look like in your district, reflect on your current practices, and determine what will be your next steps. You will learn the critical methods of AVID schoolwide and learn how to build capacity with AVID professional development and determine what it can look like at a district leader level. This is an annual AVID District Leaders event.

This cohort is for districts who are participating in the Career Consultant program. District identified career committees will attend to engage in professional learning, collaboration, and program planning. Development of career pathways is based on the nationally recognized Redefining Ready metrics and professional learning will include outside expertise and exemplars to guide district teams in design. 

To change the outcomes in mathematics, we must first rethink our approach. This overview session, designed for teachers and district leaders, introduces the eight effective math teaching practices as a foundation for shifting the perception of math in our schools. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect on their current teaching practices, explore an overview of the eight effective teaching practices, and begin selecting a focus area to promote deeper understanding, meaningful engagement, and equity in math education. Together, let’s reimagine what’s possible and create a path to better results for every learner.

This event is offered in partnership with the Initiative Foundation and the Performance Excellence Network.

This training is an introduction to continuous improvement methods/tools to equip nonprofit and governmental leaders and staff to improve and sustain their organizations’ missions and operations. The training sessions will be highly interactive to leverage peer-to-peer learning and sharing. Each team will select a “capstone” improvement project to work on throughout the course of the program, putting the new information and tools into immediate application.

Sourcewell strives to bring the highest-quality resources, information, and training opportunities to our members. We’re honored to team up with the Initiative Foundation and the Performance Excellence Network to bring this opportunity to our central Minnesota region.

The Minnesota Service Cooperatives have collaborated to bring you a virtual, asynchronous option to meeting your Cultural Competency licensure requirement. This course provides video learning, personal reflection time, an opportunity to hear from educators in the field, and many additional resources to explore as you continue your journey to be an even more culturally competent educator.

Join us for a transformative speaker series designed to empower educators with the knowledge and tools to create inclusive and culturally responsive learning environments. Our series focuses on three timely topics in education. Register for a single day session that fits your professional learning goals or all three with access to the Open Windows Books Cohort.

This on-demand course will define formative assessment and explore the benefits of utilization. Participants will learn about various formative assessment techniques for both virtual and in-person learning, and will leave the session ready to implement and achieve some formative assessment quick wins.

Using formative assessments regularly and consistently can give both educators and learners an even clearer picture around what learners know. Formative assessments also provide educators with a guide to developing learning experiences and lesson planning that can meet the needs of all learners. By using formative assessments with purpose, educators can maximize student learning and increase the effectiveness of their lesson design and delivery.

The Foundational Skills (for short-call subs): Learn the most impactful strategies to successfully engage students while also helping the adults save their energy. Based on the ongoing applied research in over 50,000 classrooms and school settings, The Catalyst Approach is committed to finding relevant and practical solutions to the most common school challenges. This course introduces the roots of The Catalyst Approach and the 12 Foundational Skills to help every adult working with students know where to focus their efforts. Hopefully you’ll finish the course with a renewed sense of hope, joy, and confidence in your work.

The Foundational Skills (for student teachers): Learn the most impactful strategies to successfully engage students while also helping the adults save their energy. Based on the ongoing applied research in over 50,000 classrooms and school settings, The Catalyst Approach is committed to finding relevant and practical solutions to the most common school challenges. This course introduces the roots of The Catalyst Approach and the 12 Foundational Skills to help every adult working with students know where to focus their efforts. Hopefully you’ll finish the course with a renewed sense of hope, joy, and confidence in your work.

Quick Start to Coaching Adult Learners (for those mentoring teachers): Gain insights about the important role of mentoring adult learners. Whether you’re working with a student teacher, a new colleague, or a school leader who supports ongoing professional development for teachers, the strategies in this brief learning experience will sharpen your mentoring skills. Even if you have previous experience in this kind of role, you’ll get to reflect and refine your skills to gain confidence and make your work even more effective!

This event is offered in partnership with the Initiative Foundation.

Your nonprofit needs grants to sustain operation and local government departments need grant to provide programming, but how do you identify and apply for the right grants? In this workshop, learn from an expert about the basics of preparing for and writing a high-quality grant application.

Sourcewell strives to bring the highest-quality resources, information, and training opportunities to our members. We're honored to team up with the Initiative Foundation to bring this opportunity to our central Minnesota region.

This is a beginner training session. This workshop is intended to help build capacity for city leaders, zoning administrators, and Planning Commission members when it comes to a foundational understanding of land use. This training will help cities to approach zoning questions with increased confidence.

This webinar will identify elements of differentiation and explore differentiation strategies such as questioning, grouping, and choice. Use these strategies to meet both support and challenge needs of your diverse students.

Led by a mental health professional and educator, this webinar will cover key facts about children's mental health, early warning signs of mental health disorders, and signs and symptoms of childhood suicide. Discussion will include strategies for how to respond and how to access help for students.

This training focuses on why and how our body and brain respond to stress/crisis and how that affects our work, wellness, and interactions. Explore Social-Emotional Learning strategies to recognize dysregulation in yourself and others, as well as strategies to regain and retain regulation. These strategies apply to interactions with students, colleagues, and caregivers.

Multilingual learners in our classrooms are a huge asset. Not every educator may feel confident in how to best support and include these students. This webinar offers insights to support educators in creating optimal learning environments and instructional strategies for each learner.

This event is offered in partnership with the Initiative Foundation.

Join this training and conversation tailored for nonprofit staff and board members. Nonprofits are not owned by anyone (like typical businesses), they are overseen by a board of directors who represent the best interests of the community. Come and learn about board roles, responsibilities, and ethical and legal obligations, along with how board members can best support the organization they serve and how roles change over time base on the evolution of the nonprofit.

Sourcewell strives to bring the highest-quality resources, information, and training opportunities to our members. We’re honored to team up with the Initiative Foundation to bring this opportunity to our central Minnesota region.   

This is a specialized training on both practical and legal considerations of Minnesota’s open meeting law and data practices requirements. Participants will gain an understanding of these complicated laws, learn how to access appropriate resources, and leave with practical knowledge for working within the laws’ parameters.

Join this on-demand training opportunity to access a wide variety of online courses designed to provide paraprofessionals the targeted training needed to succeed as a Title I paraprofessional, including strategies that can be applied immediately.

The training includes access to over 150 courses and can be used for professional development or certification. Access to the content will be available for one year from your registration date. If you are using this training for certification, you must complete PARA Assessment 1 and PARA Assessment 2. The assessments must be proctored. Please be aware that this is an on-demand training and any preparations for the assessments are up to the individual to complete online.

Sourcewell will not be hosting proctoring sessions at this time, please see this FAQ document for more information.

This two-day course brings the League of Minnesota Cities PATROL training to the classroom. Students will have a mix of classroom-style learning and role-play exercises. The course will cover 16 POST credits for officers including:

• Autism objectives 1-4 (4 hours)


• Conflict Management and Mediation objective 1 (1 hour)


• CIMIC objectives 1-7 (9 hours)


• Officer Wellness objectives 1, 2, and 4 (2 hours)

Join your Regional COMPASS Climate and Culture Lead in monthly one hour sessions focused on supporting school climate improvement. Each session will include information on one area of school climate work with time to network, share common challenges related to school climate, support the needs of the group attending, and make requests for future Pop Up PD sessions. This collaborative event aims to strengthen support and improve school environments across our community.

Our first session in February we'll share about the COMPASS system, our COMPASS School Climate and Culture team, and how our School Climate and Culture Regional Leads can support your district.

March Session: Topic TBD
April Session: Topic TBD
May Session: Topic TBD

Prior to the virtual Pop Up PD, you will receive a calendar invitation with a Zoom link included.

Many work environments are increasingly complex and uncertain, requiring high functioning teams. Effective teamwork needs to be cultivated and given regular attention. This workshop helps team leaders develop shared leadership among team members, foster belonging and inclusion for all team members, and provides concrete tools for improving collaboration between team members. This workshop is designed for both team leaders and team members, who will receive valuable skills, tools and ideas that can be immediately implemented.

Many work environments are increasingly complex and uncertain, requiring high functioning teams. Effective teamwork needs to be cultivated and given regular attention. This workshop helps team leaders develop shared leadership among team members, foster belonging and inclusion for all team members, and provides concrete tools for improving collaboration between team members. This workshop is designed for both team leaders and team members, who will receive valuable skills, tools and ideas that can be immediately implemented.

School leaders will come together five times throughout the year to share a meal, network with one another on topics of interest to them, and learn up to date information on key leadership topics.

Language is ever evolving and changing. Sometimes knowing which terms or descriptions to use can be difficult and sometimes we don’t even know we are using outdated or harmful language. This webinar is focused on promoting positive language around topics such as race, gender, and common school-based labels and language.

The Sourcewell Educator Summit is the region's premier opportunity to engage with leading education experts as well as colleagues as you continue the work of creating a culture of learning for all students.

View list of speakers >

Focus topics:

Universal Design for Learning; Grading
Culture, Collaborative Teams (PLCs), and MTSS
Effective Practices in Teaching, Assessing, and Reporting; Writing
Cultural Competency
Teacher Resiliency
GRIT and Resiliency in Education
Special Education – Teacher Resiliency
Supporting Diverse Learners
Special Education and 504s
Artificial Intelligence Tools