Inspire personal connections between people and place.

Who is this for?
Parks, museums, heritage sites, and more with visitor services. Additionally for mission-based organizations whose work involves connecting people and place.

For onboarding seasonal staff, recharging and revitalizing permanent or returning staff. Participants can also include interns, volunteers and partners, and staff from other divisions such as resources or fees.

This training helps individuals flourish while at the same time working to build a cohesive team. It offers interpretive foundations in a fresh, accessible way, develops innovative thinking, and builds skills for all levels of experience. It can help integrate and apply techniques gained from prior training (such as ACE, NAI or proValens) or be used as a stand-alone, comprehensive interpretive skills training.

Bespoke, skills-based interpretive training that helps you inspire visitors to meaningfully tap into the power of place.

By the end of training staff will:

• Master the illusive art of offering the right dosage of information and experiences

• Gain tools to help research, define and share wider and deeper site stories

• Experiment and create a personalized toolbox of inclusive engagement techniques

• Get links between training modules and site-specific content, so that learning can be applied right away

• Be able to personalize a program or develop a new well-balanced visitor experience

• Offer tours with more confidence and ease

• Work collaboratively with your team, sharing skills, knowledge, and feedback

• Experience being part of a supportive, cohesive work environment

Training Formats:

Year Round Training Options

1. Seasonal Onboard Training
(New Hires) or/and Program Development, Skill-Building and Recharge (Returning or Career Staff)
Sense of Place and the Art of Interpretation 1, 2 or 3 Day Format Options. See the familiar through new eyes. Outline an inclusive program. Hone techniques and boost skills. Excellent for preparing staff with a fresh program to deliver and for team-building.

2. Mid-Season Boost
With some solid in-the-field experience under their belt, this training is perfect for staff to gain and apply tools to boost their visitor engagement skills in content development and delivery. It’s also a perfect way to integrate people who came on at different times into the team. 1, 2 or 3 Day Format Options.

3. Wrap-Up and Evaluate
A wonderful way to celebrate the busy summer season and reflect on what to build and boost going forward. Perfect for including departing staff who weren’t able to attend prior training or team-building experiences. 1, 2 or 3 Day Format Options.

4. Reflect and Re-envision
During this quieter season for some parks, this is a great time to reflect and revisit program ideas, with deep attention to innovation and rethinking narratives. Helps to hone skills in crafting inclusive narratives and appealing to different learning styles. 1, 2 or 3 Day Format Options

Inclusive Storytelling Consulting Package

Invest in the transformation of your staff, your programs and other interpretive media. Bring a collaborative spirit of inclusion and innovation to your site. Brainstorm fresh ideas and get training and support to fully implement them.

Sample package could include:

1) Session One: Inclusive Story Kickstart. 3-day onsite training.
2) Session Two: Skills Booster Training. 2-day onsite or online training;
3) Session Three: Spring Interpretive Training. 3-day onsite training.
4) Session Four: Completion and Review. Polish, Hone, and Deliver. 2-day onsite training.

All-inclusive package for 4 training onsite and/or online sessions, plus ongoing support through email or Zoom sessions. Request more information.

Logistics:

Payment: Erica is a registered independent contractor with the Federal Government and in the SAM system. She accepts checks, direct deposits, and credit cards (with a 3% processing fee.) Training fees range from $2,500 to $5,500 (plus travel).

Travel Expenses: Erica uses the standard government rates for travel, meals and lodging, and can provide a detailed estimate upon request. Erica flies out of Hartford, CT. Rates can be reduced when she is already in your region.

Formats: Training can be offered for consecutive days onsite. Formats can be adapted to meet your staff and training needs.A minimum of 6 participants is required. Some parks opt to hire Erica for multiple consecutive days, so everyone can attend. Parks with a large staff can do a presentation style training with more group work and limited 1:1 time with the instructor. Other sites might include all their interpreters, interns, volunteers, partners, and other divisions such as resources, curatorial, and fees.

Sense of Place Consulting is a Woman Owned Small Business. Erica is part of the LGBTQ community and is known for her down-to-earth, inclusive facilitation skills. She is committed to helping all individuals show up fully as who they are, and meeting people wherever they are on their learning journey.

Let’s connect to schedule a call to learn more about each other, discuss your priorities, and explore what might be the best fit for your current staff and training needs. Reach out and we can find a good time to set up a call or Zoom. Contact Erica Here

Prior Interpretive Training

National Park Service

• Acadia NP

• Adams NHP

• Assateague Island NS

• Bandelier NM

• Big Thicket NP

• Cape Cod NS

• Denali National Park and Preserve

• Everglades NP

• Fredrick Law Olmsted NHS

• Ft. Stanwix NHS

• Gateway NRA

• Governors Island NM

• Grant-Khors NHS

• Great Sands NP

• Great Smokies NP

• Hawai’i Volcanoes NP

Training Results:

“We brought Erica in to help us master the art of storytelling and to learn how to share the meaning of these places even more effectively. When we worked with Erica before, it was one of the most meaningful experiences of my career. I was thrilled by seeing the growth in rangers and the inspiration they gleaned.” National Mall and Memorial Parks, Washington, DC

"I observed my staff applying Erica's approach and feel that the level of programs this year was just outstanding. Even our more "science based" interpreters brought in more of the emotional, reflective techniques.  Her ideas were especially effective for creating that baseline of connection that leads to meaningful dialogue. I personally used her techniques in my programs and found they were incredibly powerful every time, with all ages. We're looking forward to continuing to use what we learned." Cape Cod National Seashore, MA

“With everyone, from our permanent to seasonal rangers, I noticed changes right away. After the training, they had adjusted the structure of their program and had a clearer theme. They seemed to have found their focus and grew from there. Additionally, rangers began using places at the site differently, highlighting different stories and asking deeper questions. Having had a facilitated dialog training and the Sense of Place training was for us, a powerful combination." Women's Rights National Historical Park, NY

"Erica provided our interpretive staff with a fresh angle on interpretation, new techniques, and the opportunity to stretch and experiment. Our interpreters strengthened and re-imagined their approach to sharing our resources with visitors. This training served as a solid foundation for our seasonal training and complimented prior training around audience-centered engagement techniques, peer coaching, and resource content.”  Marsh-Billings-Rockerfeller NHP & Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site,VT and NH

“This training offers a holistic approach that fosters group cohesion and gives actionable tools for program structure. Erica’s ability to offer site-specific examples makes it even more impactful. Participants came away feeling confident they could develop and give a meaningful visitor experience. The group collaboration aspect of the training was personally so beneficial — it was helpful for learning from others, gaining new insights, and generating ideas that I wouldn’t have come up with on my own.” Sitka NHP, AK

Participants REsults:

• "I would definitely recommend this component to all career NPS interpreters.” National Mall and Memorial Parks, Washington, DC
  

• “I will definitely use the tools/techniques and am inspired to create great visitor experiences. I used to
  DREAD the outline process — I would be stuck in the muck for days — Erica has given me the boots I need
  for this terrain! Thank you for the gift of this outstanding training.” Sitka NHP, AK
  

• "Re-energizing for even the most seasoned staff" Ft. Stanwix NHS, NY
  

• "I shifted from 1st to 2nd gear in understanding ACE and ways to develop a method of making connections.” Denali NP and Preserve, AK
  

• "This training is interpretation with a paradigm shift. Participants walk away with a much fuller and more
  meaningful toolbox, which can be given as a gift to the average visitor." Bandelier NM, NM
  

• "I see how I can apply this to tours that seem stale" Montana State Parks & State Historical Society, MT
  

• "Good for new interpreters and non-traditional learners who have struggled with the concepts in other training sessions.” Denali NP and Preserve, AK
  

• "This training is a safe space for learning to consider more perspectives when writing info into programs, and for exploring less comfortable audience engagement techniques.” White Sands NP, NM

What makes this training different?

Bespoke training, fully customized for each site. Each training is site-specific and includes prior research and a site visit to ensure all segments are fully applicable right away.

A fresh perspective on interpretation. Erica blends her expertise in the field (having worked with 45+ NPS sites to date), with her career in the performing arts and experience with the creative process. Her sense of place approach offers fresh, insightful tools to rethink interpretation, visitor motivations, and storytelling.

Helps all levels of experience deliver inclusive programs. To deliver truly inclusive programs that feel well-crafted and authentic takes development and practice. To meet the pressing need for sites to tell fuller, more complete stories, this training offers in-depth support for interpreters with all levels of experience, to generate ideas, experiment with storytelling, and hone their delivery techniques so that they can share often complex stories, in a concise and effective way.

Helps all kinds of learners excel. Not everyone learns in the same way. This training offers a creative approach to help different kinds of learners quickly grasp interpretive concepts. It offers a supportive atmosphere that helps each interpreter find or affirm their most effective techniques, while also self-identifying their own growing edge and next steps. It offers personalized mentoring during the training, ensuring interpreters are able to develop the skills needed to meet performance standards with confidence and ease.

Builds a cohesive team. This creative, participatory training offers multiple opportunities to learn from peers through experimenting, brainstorming, and collaborating. The result is a chance to work in a fun, productive way that is often hoped for but hard to achieve. In the end, a spirit of teamwork is fostered that lasts throughout the season, and beyond.

Is place-centered. Rather than generic training that provides generalized methods or approaches, this training centers on using the power of place to generate program content and flow. Because every place has stories that can be seen from multiple perspectives, this training focuses on gaining techniques to best share the wider and deeper stories a particular place holds.