Come and learn how to deliver brilliant faith-based social action that changes your community for the better. There is always more to learn and investing in your skills and knowledge is one of the most powerful ways to develop your project.
To help you, we’ve developed training sessions to give you fundamental skills, knowledge and experience you need to run a brilliant social action project.
Pick and choose the sessions that are right for you. Or, if you join our Cinnamon Academy you can attend them ALL online alongside focused Learning Hubs; or choose our hybrid model and attend our special two-day Residential in real life, along with some online sessions.
All the workshops are live online sessions, where you’ll benefit from the expertise of tutor and others who are working in the faith-based social action.
Our Training Workshops
Our training topics are arranged around four key themes:
Strategy
What's involved?
Breakout Rooms
Through breakout rooms, you’ll work with others to explore how to put your learning into practice in your own context.
Q&A
Put your questions to our trainers to get clarity on the topics discussed and support with any specific projects you’re working on
Notes
You’ll receive comprehensive resources from the training session along with relevant links, references and further reading.
What others are saying ...
“Brilliant trainer carefully hosted. It’s been a great use of time.”
“This was a really good course, and I will be recommending it! Thank you.”
“The best online training I have attended on Zoom – great speakers – great content- so relevant”
Explore Our Workshops
Missional Listening (Core)
Learn how to listen to God and your community more effectively.
Reflect on what community is all about; develop the right attitude to approach others; and explore a range of tools and methods for listening to those in your local area and mapping the resources and needs there.
Our Missional Listening training will help church leaders, volunteers and activists to listen to God and to their community more effectively.
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During this course, you’ll learn how to:
• Understand your community in greater depth – perhaps in a completely new way!
• Approach your community with a collaborative attitude.
• Use a range of tools and techniques to help you listen in-depth to a range of stake holders.
• Use mapping tools to consolidate your knowledge and share it effectively with others.
Partnerships
Explore how to connect with others in your community and instigate change together.
You’ll learn techniques to help you develop relationships with both current and potential partners. Get equipped to find those who can help open funding opportunities, provide resources, and grow your ministry.
This training will help church and projects leaders to find the right partners and build strong relationships with a wide range of groups that will help their social action projects thrive.
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During this course, you’ll learn how to:
• Build a network of contacts from different sectors across your community.
• Develop a plan to help you assess and manage your partnerships well.
• Work effectively with partners who don’t share your Christian faith.
Promotions and Marketing
Explore how to showcase your project to others in your community and beyond.
You’ll learn techniques to help you develop relationships with both current and potential partners. Get equipped to find those who can help open funding opportunities, provide resources, and grow your ministry.
This training will help church and projects leaders to find the right partners and build strong relationships with a wide range of groups that will help their social action projects thrive.
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During this course, you’ll learn how to:
• Clarify your message and work out who you are communicating with, and why
• Build a network of contacts from different sectors across your community.
• Build an effective communications plan to engage a variety of partners.
Leadership (Core)
Learn how to develop healthy leadership traits and nurture others.
We’ll help you identify healthy leadership traits and nurture new leaders.
Everything is grounded in Biblical principles to promote vulnerability, authenticity, and confidence.
Leadership is hard – but you don’t need to be a superhero. We’ll help you identify your own strengths and weaknesses as a leader and understand how this impacts the way you support your team.
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During this course, you’ll learn how to:
• Identify healthy and unhealthy leadership traits
• Discern when you need to let go of control to avoid burn out
• Nurture younger leaders to embrace their strengths
Good Governance
Learn how to develop a healthy relationship between your Board and your staff, and to build good governance structures.
Using Biblical principles, we’ll help you consider the ethics of governance as well as the legal requirements for trustees. We’ll identify the difference between governance and management, and look at the challenges.
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During this course, you’ll learn how to:
• Understand your responsibility regarding governance.
• Work effectively with trustees to progress your vision.
Managing Change Well
Gain skills to help you anticipate and manage change well.
Learn techniques to help you manage the pace of change, share your vision with your team and build communication so everyone is included and supported. We’ll also look at how you share the burden and avoid burn out and give you some practical tools to help you prioritise and plan.
You don’t need to be afraid of change, and we’ll help you learn how to anticipate what’s ahead, plan your response and communicate well with everyone who’ll be impacted.
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During this course, you’ll learn how to:
• Understand how change can impact an organisation positively and negatively
• Techniques in project planning to help you anticipate when change is needed
• Manage the pace of change, so you don’t burn out
• Communicate well to manage the expectations of others
• Develop techniques to support different stakeholders through periods of transition
Discerning Your Calling
Find out how your church is called to transform your community.
God is already at work in our communities bringing about transformation. The ‘Calling’ section of Cinnamon Connect invites you to look for signs of the kingdom in your community and work out how you can join in with God’s mission to bring about social, political, economic, cultural and spiritual transformation.
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So, as we get started, we need to ask some very simple questions:
• What is God doing in your village, town or city?
• Where is God renewing faith and refreshing lives?
• Where are people finding their way into God’s kingdom?
Christian Distinctiveness
What does it mean to be a ‘Christian organisation’ while working with a range of church, business and community organisation?
Come to explore the implications in terms of the equalities act, what the Bible has to say about our identity and how to establish a clear vision and strategy for your project, church or organisation.
Measuring Impact (Core)
Learn how to assess your impact and improve your outcomes.
Learn how to build monitoring and evaluation into your project from the outset, so you gather relevant in a timely manner, without being overwhelmed. You’ll also learn how to collect and analyse data and use impact frameworks and measurement tools to improve project outcomes.
To find out if you’re really making a difference, you need more than anecdotal evidence. We’ll help you identify and collect the hard facts you need to present to funders and stakeholders to show the difference you’re making and where there’s room for development.
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During this course, you’ll learn how to:
• Understanding the concepts and jargon around measuring impact
• Clarify your vision, objectives, outputs and outcomes, and recognise how they differ.
• Select the right indicators to measure the effect of your activities.
• Use a range of tools and techniques to gather the data you need.
• Understand your obligations with regard to ethics, consent and data protection.
Effective Fundraising – Starting Out
Explore strategies and techniques to identify potential funders, write compelling grant proposals, and create fundraising plans to sustain your social action work.
* NOTE: This session is aimed at those with NO experience of fundraising who need help getting started. If you are already doing some fundraising and want to hone your skills, take a look at our “Upskilling” course.
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During this course, you’ll learn how to:
• Understand what fundraising is all about
• Develop your ‘ask’
• Create a clear budget
Effective Fundraising – Upskilling
Explore strategies and techniques to identify potential funders, write compelling grant proposals, and create fundraising plans to sustain your social action work.
* NOTE: This session is aimed at those with some experience of fundraising who want to hone their skills. If you’re a beginner, take a look at our “Starting Out” course.
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During this course, you’ll learn how to:
• Improve your application technique
• Develop an effective fundraising strategy
• Hone your message to make an impact
• Build relationships with funders
Finance for non-Finance Directors
Designed specifically for those without any financial experience.
This course will help give you a solid grasp of the key concepts and information you need to ensure your project, church or organisation is set up for success.
Explore the key responsibilities and terminology you’ll need when working with finances. We’ll also explore legal responsibilities you have and key indicators you need to be aware of to ensure your project is financially healthy.
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What you’ll learn:
• Key financial terminology
• Financial responsibilities every organisation needs to abide by
• Financial ratios – what’s healthy; what’s not
• What information is required by law
• How to put together a budget
• How to build simple financial reporting.
Good Practice in Employment
Get stuck into good employment practice and learn how to manage your team well.
We’ll look at the legal requirements and equalities legislation alongside how you put in place good boundaries to protect yourself, your staff and volunteers, and those you work with.
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During this course, you’ll learn how to:
• Put in place the right policies and procedures to protect yourself and your team.
• Overview of legal requirements for paid staff
• Cultivate a supportive and equitable work environment
Dealing with Conflict in Ministry
Completely rethink the way you manage disagreements
Our friends at Place for Hope deliver this training to help you understand what conflict is and how to identify problems before they grow. You’ll gain a greater understanding of your own approach to conflict and how you can use this to manage disagreements with calmness, courage and confidence.
In just three hours, you’ll completely rethink the way you approach and manage difficult conversations.
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During this course, you’ll learn how to:
• Identify and resolve problems before they escalate
• Understand how differences in opinion can impact your church and community
• Identify your own approach to conflict and how this influences your personal response
• Approach disagreements with calmness, courage and confidence
The Volunteer Journey
Learn how to recruit, train and retain great people.
Explore what motivates people to volunteer and how to build the right team for your project. You’ll learn all aspects of volunteer management, including recruitment, training, retention, and recognition alongside how to manage tricky situations and encourage volunteers to become your greatest advocates.
Great volunteers can propel your ministry forward and save you money and time. They can also become your organisation’s greatest advocates, but only if you manage and support them effectively.
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During this course, you’ll learn how to:
• Develop a robust strategy to recruit the right volunteers
• Implement training and support to help individuals achieve their potential
• Put in place the right policies and procedures to protect yourself and your team
• Manage disagreements and challenges well for the benefit of everyone
• Grow volunteers into your greatest ambassadors
Good Practice in Safeguarding
Safeguarding isn’t just a policy — it’s a culture of care.
Safeguarding should be woven into everything your church, Christian project or organisation does. But church contexts can sometimes be complex and difficult to navigate.
With expert input from Thirtyone:eight, This practical training session will help you develop a robust, fair and compassionate approach to safeguarding, equipping you to respond well when concerns or difficult situations arise.
You’ll leave feeling more confident and equipped to help create a culture where everyone takes responsibility for safeguarding and the most vulnerable are protected.
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What we’ll cover
• Safeguarding law — understanding your responsibilities
• Building a safeguarding policy that works in practice
• Challenging sensitively when something doesn’t feel right
• Escalating concerns and knowing where to seek further support
• Creating a culture of shared responsibility where everyone takes ownership
EDI
Creating communities where everyone can belong, participate and flourish.
How can our churches and Christian projects reflect the welcome, dignity and value that God gives to every person? This practical and interactive training session will help you explore Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) in the context of Christian ministry and community work.
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Together, we’ll consider:
• What EDI really means and why it matters for churches and Christian organisations
• How our Christian faith and values shape the way we think about inclusion, dignity and belonging
• Recognising barriers, assumptions and unconscious bias
• How we can make our churches, projects and activities more welcoming and accessible
• Practical steps towards building inclusive communities where everyone can contribute and thrive
Meet Your Course Director
Diane McWilliam
Diane’s knowledge of community development covers both the theory and the practice. She has personally set up and led a whole range of initiatives from foodbanks to programmes working with asylum seekers. When she’s not helping churches to establish successful community development projects, Diane is a practice tutor at the University of Glasgow.
