LearnSphere Review - Amber Chisholm at PLEIS NB

Speaker: Amber Chisholm , Associate Director, Public Legal Education and Information Service of NB

Amber Chisholm : Before we started working with LearnSphere we were struggling, to find somebody who was able to spend dedicated time managing the high level aspects of a major project we were working on, called SaferPlacesNB (www.saferplacesnb.ca). We are a very small staff, and we were struggling to find and hire a project manager to keep track of deadlines, and help coordinate with outside professionals who were giving us services such as graphic design. So, we really needed that high level management, the communication coordination, and somebody who was able to keep close track of the project deliverables and timelines.

Amber Chisholm : One of the most significant things for us about working with LearnSphere has been access to that expertise in project management. So that basically means a team who has access to their own set of contacts, and a professional network, as well as ideas about how to manage things like workshop materials, networking, managing timelines, and expertise. Able to advise us and give us new ideas and new ways of approaching our projects. When something wasn't working we were able to lean on that expertise to try doing things, and approaching things, in a different way, as well as examining the way that our team has been managing the project to date and whether or not things are working effectively, if they're working effectively, in what way, and how can we optimise that? If they're not working effectively having somebody there who's able to help advise us and find other professionals who can advise us on how to do better.

Amber Chisholm : I would tell them that it's a team of very professional individuals who are qualified. They're able to give advice on a number of different aspects of project management, and they're also able to give access to other experts in aspects of project management such as evaluation, professionals who can help develop and deliver workshops, You're not just getting the team of professionals at LearnSphere, but you're also getting access to their network. And they're very good about going back to talk to their team for more ideas, if we're stuck. It's really good to have access to that entire team of people who are very dedicated to making sure that we get what we need out of our projects!