Celebrating Our Training Past

by Valerie Delaney, Principal, Learning + Development

As we celebrate our 25th year milestone anniversary, it’s been fun to look back on where we came from. Delaney began its training practice in 1996; at that time and for the next few years, our focus was exclusively on science-based training for federal government departments. We designed, developed, and delivered numerous courses relating to environmental awareness and management; sustainable impact assessment and planning; habitat management; environment assessment; energy efficiency financing; and energy monitoring for example. We also began developing courses on the softer side of things, including conflict management, leadership, emotions in the workplace and managing public consultations in government – and that’s where we found our passion and preference.

Richard Delaney became a licenced International Association for Public Participation (iap2) trainer in 2007, followed by Jessica Delaney in 2014. Our training has focused exclusively on community engagement since that time. While we know very well that numbers don’t tell the full story – whether about the quality of an engagement (how many surveys were completed) or about the quality of a training (how many participants attended) – we do know they are important for reflection, trends, and continuous improvement.

In looking back, we remember the excitement of starting each new class, the pleasure of meeting dedicated engagement practitioners, and the challenge of improving and expanding our training practice. The reward has been knowing we’ve helped build engagement capacity in Canada.

This is a special time to thank every one of our participants. Thank you for your trust, participation, feedback, suggestions, and testimonials! We could not celebrate without you and look forward to working together in the future.

Our engagement training story by the numbers