Teach "Finding Your Voice in the Healthcare Maze" in Your Community with "Train the Trainer" Workshops!

The "Finding Your Voice" workshop empowers participants with concrete strategies, skill building exercises and rare insights into healthcare.  This Train the Trainer workshop gives participants the tools and confidence to go back into their community.

Finding Your Voice: Train the Trainer is also collaborating with our Circles of Care initiative to offer this workshop with a focus on health disparities and cultural differences within the African American community when discussing advance care planning, patient advocacy and organ, eye, and tissue donation. We will bring highlights from our newest book, Getting Your Healthcare House in Order.  Read further for dates and locations.

As a participant you will:

• Learn the need for patient advocacy and be given skills and tools needed to use your voice, even in disorienting situations.
• Strategically approach new ways to think about Advance Care Planning documents and practice having conversations with families about their wishes.
• Receive a rare education about the impact of organ/eye/tissue donation and explore the myths and misconceptions that permeate our culture.

Register for one of these "Train the Trainer" workshops and be looking for future events!

• September 15, 2011 from 9:00am-4:00pm and September 16 from 9:00am-12:00pm at Carolina Meadows, Chapel Hill NC. Click here to register.
• October 14, 2011 from 8:30am-5:00pm at Duplin Conference Center of Scotland Memorial Hospital  We will be hosting a workshop, Laurinburg, NC.  Sponsored by Hospice of Scotland County.
• November 18, 2011 from 8:30am-5:00pm at River Landing Retirement Community, Colfax, NC.

African American focused events:

• September 10, 2011 from 8:30am-5:00pm hosted by Hospice of Randolph county, Asheboro, NC.
• October 22, 2011 from 8:30am-5:00pm hosted by Martin Street Baptist Church, Raleigh, NC.
• October 29, 2011 from 8:30am-5:00pm hosted by Cape Fear Hospice, Wilmington, NC.

Space is limited, so register today by contacting Jane Walters at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or (919) 402-1844.

We are giving this workshop to you, to teach in your community at no cost to you. Throughout 2011, we will be offering our brand new Finding Your Voice: Train the Trainer certification throughout North Carolina. All training materials include the Teacher's Curriculum Guide, 10 participant workshop companion guides and all PowerPoints and educational modules needed to teach the class.

We also have, in collaboration with our Circles of Care Initiative, a workshop focused around the African American community.  Stacie Peacock and Tiffany wrote the workbook, Getting Your Healthcare House in Order, with a focus on health disparities and cultural differences within the African American community when discussing these topics.

HOST AN EVENT:  If you or your organization would like to host a Train the Trainer, please email us for more information.  Also, for more information on the content of this training, contact Tiffany Christensen at (919) 928-2958 or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

This training is developed for community members and professionals interested in patient empowerment through education and practicing skills.

Finding Your Voice is a groundbreaking initiative that integrates patient advocacy, advance care planning and organ/tissue donation education. 

Created by Tiffany Christensen, author of Sick Girl Speaks (www.sickgirlspeaks.com) and We Are the Change, and James Brooks, former Executive Director of Project Compassion, Finding Your Voice reaches patients, caregivers, consumers, healthcare students and professionals. 

Photo:  Tiffany Christensen, two-time double lung transplant recipient, advocates for organ/tissue donation with legislators at the NC State Legislature building.

In 2009, Finding Your Voice expanded statewide, reaching people in 17 cities across  NC.  In 2010 we are offering workshops and presentations for patients, caregivers, health care students and health care professionals. 

We are piloting a new Train the Trainer curriculum and workshop for community leaders.  Click here to find out more information on the first Finding Your Voice: Train the Trainer.

“Finding Your Voice in the Healthcare Maze” is a 3-part series for patients, caregivers and community members that helps participants learn how to be proactive patient advocates.

During one workshop series in Colfax, NC, participants focused in on the challenges patients face when they do not have an advocate.  As they discussed how difficult it is to make treatment choices, communicating end-of-life decisions and make organ/tissue donation wishes known without an advocate in place, several participants became deeply emotional.

Educating healthcare students and professionals is a cornerstone of Finding Your Voice. In 2009 over 1,000 future and current physicians, nurses, social workers and other health care professionals learned about the patient perspective, advocacy, advance care planning and organ/tissue donation through Finding Your Voice.

Remarkably, this vital information is seldom (and in many cases never) part of their professional or continuing education.