In addition to identifying training topics, the committees also specify particular groups as target populations for training. For example, one committee recognized the need for training in a newly-formed spouse abuse volunteer program in its county. Finally, the committees identify possible training resources, such as facilities for training events and consultants with expertise in certain areas. The committees thus provide an effective communication link by identifying training needs, populations, and resources. In addition to attending committee meetings, individual members often help in the planning and implementation of specific training programs.
Most members are actual participants in training events as well.
The program's training events began in February 1979. Since then, a total of 89 workshops have been completed, involving more than 1,600 participants in 996 hours of training. The topics of these workshops have included, for example, teaching relaxation skills, leading counseling groups, organizing community education programs, promoting mental health in schools, working with the dying client, supervising counselors, rational emotive therapy, communication skills, time management, community support systems, crisis intervention, incest, and gestalt therapy. The participants in these workshops have included not only mental health professionals but also paraprofessionals, volunteers, teachers, law enforcement officers, social workers, nurses, clerical workers, and hair dressers. In addition to involving a variety of topics and trainees, the training programs have taken place in numerous locations throughout the central Shenandoah Valley.