The 2012 NCCEP/GEAR UP Capacity-Building Workshop provides professional development and strategic planning activities for new and experienced GEAR UP professionals to effectively meet their project goals and objectives. Most importantly, the Capacity Building Workshop is a unique opportunity to have your GEAR UP team learn and explore new concepts together, developing common strategies to positively impact the valuable college access work at your program sites. The Capacity-Building Workshop will address issues pertaining to STEM, parent engagement, meeting the needs of Rural schools, evaluation, and much more. The Capacity-Building Workshop is designed and coordinated by the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP) and planned in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Education.

This year’s Capacity-Building Workshop is different from the NCCEP/GEAR UP Annual Conference in that participants register for a specific strand each day over the three-day event. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore different topics during the workshop sessions, as well as the opportunity to participate in lively dialogue during Wednesday’s roundtables.

The conference is also a valuable professional development and education tool for long time GEAR UP folks as well as first time attendees. Here are some quick tips to get the most out of this year’s National Conference:

• Help make the conference dynamic: participate and ask questions during sessions and share your successes.
• Attend panels and workshops you wouldn’t normally attend, you will be surprised how this sparks new thinking.
• Connect and converse: get to know fellow GEAR UP community members and learn about their program.
• Make a plan. Focus on the purpose of the conference “Linking Programs, Practice and Policy”. How does this pertain to you?
• Take notes and collect resources like business cards and sponsor materials.
• Follow up-to-the-minute conference news and information on the California GEAR UP blog and Twitter. http://castategearup.org/blog ::http://twitter.com/CAGEARUP
• Have fun!