Challenge: There are new opportunities for promotion within the agency. Over 55% of the organization's staff attended the program as youth and are under the age of 25 years old. The organization wanted to look at talent within to fill the skills gap, especially former Neu-Life program participants. The objective was to hire for heart and train for skills. Currently, week-long staff training is offered annually on a variety of youth-work related topics. Staff also attend individual trainings at off-site locations as needed. This is a good start, but not enough to fill the current skills gap.

Solution: I developed a multi-faceted staff training & development plan which includes coaching, training, goal planning, and annual evaluations, known internally as the Staff Pipeline Project.