Builds critical communication skills for individuals.
Strengthens organizational capacity, team loyalty and retention.
Based on highly interactive practice, role-play.
Helps prepare your team to manage local response to affordable and supportive housing.
Do your Board Members, management, future leaders have these critical skills? This training helps pave your team’s road to building those homes!
John Irvine
Training Director
JUSTconnect
Material can be mixed and matched to fit organization need.
John Irvine is a lifelong communications trainer with close to 30 years experience in training, adult learning and communications consulting. His work facilitates socially responsible development. He has spent the past 16 years persuading and motivating developers to design and build developments that incorporate environmental benefits and social equity. As principal of JUSTconnect, he is providing affordable housing developers with training in effective communications as a way of helping manage local opposition to affordable and supportive housing in Southern California.
The training aims to equip housing advocates with a set of tools to be used to better manage projects, dialogue with communities, work with the media and communicate with public agencies. John has trained hundreds of professionals in effective communication both in the US and abroad. He earned an MBA from the University of California-Irvine as well as a Master’s in English Language Studies and Bachelor’s in English from San Francisco State University. He is active in the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing (SCANPH) and the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA).
Besides teaching techniques for making a compelling presentation, John’s training provides substantial role playing. By not just explaining—but actually practicing—new skills and strategies, the training focuses on skill building. I personally feel an improvement in my ability to analyze the audience, address their concerns and answer questions effectively.
John’s experience in affordable housing enables him to suggest strategies for affordable housing messaging. He even provides wording you should use versus wording you shouldn’t use when communicating with housing development skeptics. This very practical approach to communication meets critical needs at CEDG architecture.
Besides being effective with individuals eager to improve their job skills, John could also motivate those who were “required” to be trained. In my estimation, John’s personality and infectious energy helped make training more enjoyable while activating participants to work harder and achieve better results.
I have no doubt programs provided by John will be successful and provide substantial value to both training participants and their employer.
I’d like to give John my highest recommendation as a communication trainer—especially in the affordable and supportive housing sector. His assistance with messaging and persuading can help provide a strong antidote to the blocking of affordable housing developers from their important work. His training can also strengthen essential skills of your junior and senior staff members.
Gaia has worked on affordable housing projects of Habitat for Humanity, Vermont Village, The Related Companies and the Downtown Women’s Center on Skid Row. Issues related to community push-back and communication are especially well known to me. Many times I have testified at public hearings on project- siting. Based on my 16 years’ experience in socially responsible development, I would say John Irvine’s communication training is just what affordable housing advocates need to help them get beyond NIMBY.