CSEPP’s training programs are customized to each of our client’s needs while sharing many core components of our model. This page presents the training agenda implemented during a training for right-of-way professionals in Caro, Michigan and can serve as a reference as you consider working with CSEPP to design a training to meet your organization’s needs.

Course Objectives
- Use your observation skills in a community setting.
- Understand the influence of informal networks and learn how to interact with these networks to create opportunities for engagement.
- Learn how human geography affects the community and therefore your project.
- Recognize how to identify gathering places and why they are critical to project success.
- Become acquainted with informal network characters, such as natural communicators, in order to develop effective communication methods.
- Be able to identify citizen issues and address them in project design and implementation.
- Learn how to develop issue management strategies for aligning company and community interests in order to reduce social risk for your project.
Training Agenda:
The People Factor:”How to Manage Issues before They Manage You”
August 7 – 8, 2014 | Caro, Michigan
Day One: Thursday, August 7, 2014
8:00 a.m. | Orientation and Introductions |
9:00 a.m. | How to Describe a Community |
10:00 a.m. | Preparation for Fieldwork |
11:00 a.m. | Community Fieldwork Exercise (includes lunch in a gathering place) |
2:00 p.m. | Reflections from Field Exercise |
4:30 p.m. | Lessons Learned and Closing |
Day Two: Friday, August 8, 2014
8:00 a.m. | Overview of the day |
8:45 a.m. | Applying Concepts of Social Ecology to Fieldwork Findings |
11:30 a.m. | The Process of Issue Management |
12:00 p.m. | Lunch |
1:00 p.m. | Citizen Issues versus Community Themes |
1:30 p.m. | Identify management concerns of relevant organizations |
2:00 p.m. | Alignment of company, government and community interests |
2:30 p.m. | Break |
2:45 p.m. | Developing effective issue management strategies at home |
4:30 p.m. | What’s next and Closure |