Empowering Inclusive Practices

Training Solutions for Recreational, Social, and Community Organizations

Discover the diverse array of training solutions tailored to fulfill your inclusion objectives with MERGE. Our team collaborates closely with your organization to craft personalized on-site or online learning experiences. Empower your team with the necessary tools and cultivate the confidence to seamlessly include individuals with diverse abilities into your offerings.

A diverse group of people sitting around a table in a meeting room, engaged in conversation. There is a whiteboard with handwritten notes, water bottles, coffee cups, and various papers on the table. Four posters are hanging on the wall, and a woman is writing on the whiteboard.
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CUSTOMIZED TRAININGS

Customized training sessions curated by MERGE can incorporate a range of topic areas tailored to your organization's requirements.  Additionally, our team will collaborate with you to address any specific needs that may not be fully covered in the provided content. Our trainings, whether conducted on-site or online, are designed to be highly interactive, ensuring optimal engagement, knowledge retention, and long-term effectiveness.

  • Discover practical strategies to make inclusion thrive in your summer camp programs. This interactive session covers communication, intake processes, family engagement, and building a culture where everyone belongs. Equip your team with tools to ensure every camper feels supported, included, and successful. Leave ready to implement new techniques with confidence!

  • In this session, you'll acquire the tools and confidence to cultivate a culture supporting authentic friendships between children with and without disabilities. Leave with strategies in hand that can be implemented at your camp!

  • No More Suspensions! This training session emphasizes the importance of disability inclusion and acknowledges the need for intentional efforts to ensure the success of all individuals.

  • This session targets directors and leaders aiming to elevate their organization's inclusion efforts. It covers six inclusion principles and strategic best practices, including staffing, sustainability, promotion, community connections, and hiring. Attendees will leave with action items personalized to their role.

  • ​We’ll start by identifying 'words to avoid' and replace them with 'words to embrace,' focusing on person-first language and disability etiquette. Then, we’ll delve into the concept of 'Inclusion' and examine how it contrasts with other program models—Specialized, Adaptive, Integrated, and Unified. We'll explore the core elements, benefits, and challenges of each model.

  • The key to successful inclusive recreation offerings? Start now! Disability inclusion doesn’t start the first day of summer programs... inclusion is the intentional work we do every day, planning for the success of ALL. In this session, we’ll dissect the three S.I.T. steps (Staffing – Intake – Training) that will put your organization in prime shape to welcome, engage and support participants with diverse abilities this summer.

  • Join us for this interactive roundtable where recreation professionals come together to tackle common challenges in building inclusive environments. We’ll dive into strategies for gaining staff buy-in, engaging families, and providing behavioral support, sharing practical solutions for fostering truly inclusive experiences.

  • In this session, we’ll tackle common challenges in building an inclusive culture and explore effective strategies and best practices to align your entire team with inclusion goals. Empower your inclusion staff or CTRS to lead the charge in advancing your organization’s inclusion efforts.

  • ​Create truly inclusive community events by integrating accessibility from the very beginning. Whether you’re planning a street festival, farmers market, concert, sports event, or holiday celebration, this session provides practical guidance to ensure accessibility for people with disabilities.

  • You've removed access barriers and built a culture of disability inclusion at camp, but there's more to do. We'll dive into the dimensions of belonging, focusing on participation and authentic friendships as key measures of success.

  • Building trust with families of children with disabilities is key to inclusion. This session shares strategies for welcoming messaging, better intake, and navigating tough conversations. Hear family testimonies on why inclusion matters and gain tools to reduce non-disclosure, and foster collaboration —ensuring every child feels valued.

  • You don’t need a big budget or specialist to create inclusive camps. This session shares low-cost, high-impact strategies any program can use. Learn how your whole camp community can support inclusion and leave with tools to address behavior, promote belonging, and use local resources—because inclusion is everyone’s job.

Trainings Offered

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  • "Lisa has a very comprehensive knowledge of inclusion, and she does a remarkable job of communicating her knowledge effectively. She manages to be simultaneously thorough and concise, which is no small feat! I have attended both live presentations and webinars with her. I've always brought back new ideas to share in my own staff training. Lisa is a deeply committed knowledgeable, and enthusiastic person. I recommend her strongly."

    - Mary Ann Dunn, Program Director at Enrichment Alliance of Virginia

  • "Lisa is a gifted facilitator and presenter! Her energy is contagious, and her dedication to creating equitable and accessible environments is obvious. We started out the training as a group of relative strangers, and by the end of our 4 hours together, we felt like a cohesive team full of ideas on how we can support each other to improve our various programs. Every organization should experience a MERGE training!"

    - Anne Stephens,
    Director of Outdoor Education Programs | Big Chico Ecological Reserves, CA. 

  • "We highly recommend MERGE Inclusion Consulting! We held an Inclusion Summit for community organizations who want to be more inclusive of people with disabilities but might not know where to start. Lisa led an informative and accessible training that was fun to attend, interspersing techniques and tools with real life examples, group work scenarios, and videos. Organizations left the Summit with a greater understanding of the importance of including everyone, and the confidence to take steps towards improving inclusion within their own programming."

    -Rachel Hayward, Pathways to Friendship Facilitator 

  • "Lisa is one of the best presenters on inclusive recreation that I have heard in my thirty-five plus years as a professional in this field. She is an incredible asset to service providers, families and self-advocates."

    -Susan Fleming, Executive Director at Recreation Council of Greater St. Louis

  • "Lisa is one of those professionals that lead and others follow wanting to learn more. She is dedicated in the Inclusion space and has a wonderful way of connecting with others whether with a one-on-one conversation, educational session or webinar. If you get to spend time with her you will walk away a better person. She does it all with a strong passion. I look forward to working with Lisa in the future to expand my own knowledge and help others around me to do the same."

    - Matthew Vanderkamp,  Director of Recreation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin