COMPASS Skill Sprint: Strategic Communication for Public Sector Professionals
When your work serves the public good, effective communication is one of your most powerful tools for connecting people to the change you’re working toward. It helps others understand not just what you do, but why it matters, opening doors to deeper engagement, stronger partnerships, and new opportunities to advance your mission.
This workshop series is designed for professionals in civil service, nonprofits, and other mission-driven organizations who want to communicate with intention and amplify their impact.
Over four weeks, you’ll learn practical tools and strategies to invite people to connect with your work, build trust, and inspire meaningful action. You’ll explore core principles of communication and how to apply them to real-world settings, including introducing yourself and your mission to new audiences, designing more engaging events, and delivering memorable presentations that resonate.
4-Workshop Series
Jan 9: Strategic Science Communication
Jan 16: First Impressions
Jan 23: Presentations with Purpose
Jan 30: Building Better Virtual Events
Optional
Professional Certificate
$450
Sprint Overview
The sprint includes four interactive, three-hour workshops that build on one another to expand your skills. These workshops aren’t lectures. They’re lively, practical, and grounded in the latest communication research. You’ll leave each session with new tools and strategies, and the confidence to put them into action right away!
If you choose to, you can also earn a COMPASS Communication Certificate as a meaningful recognition of your growth as a communicator and ambassador for your mission, by demonstrating what you have learned through participating in either a capstone reflection project or group feedback session.
Workshops
Strategic Science Communication
Learn how to draft purposeful, audience-centered messages using the COMPASS Message Box. Together, we’ll explore strategies to clarify your goal and audience and to ensure your messages are meaningful, relevant, and useful.
First Impressions
Cultivate and shape future engagement with first impressions that build trust and spark curiosity. Explore how to show up with intention and tailor different styles of self-introductions to your specific goal, audience, and setting.
Presentations with Purpose
Elevate your presentation design and delivery. Explore principles of adult learning, inclusive presentation practices, and visual elements to make your next presentation more memorable and impactful.
Building Better Virtual Events
Transform your virtual events into engaging, purposeful experiences that foster meaningful conversations and connections. Learn to plan with intention, facilitate with confidence, and troubleshoot common challenges.
Certificate Capstone Project Options
To receive a COMPASS Communication Certificate, you’ll need to complete all four workshops and at least one of the Capstone Projects below.
Real-World Engagement & Self-Reflection
Apply what you learned during your COMPASS workshops in a real-world professional setting, and then submit between 300-600 words by May 1st reflecting on your communication experience and what you learned from it, along with a copy of your draft Message Box that you used to prepare to communicate.
A COMPASS facilitator will review your submission to see how you applied the key concepts and skills practiced in the workshops, and contact you within 4 weeks of receiving your submission.
Group Feedback Session Option
Want more personalized feedback? Join a 75-minute online group coaching session with others pursuing certification and at least one COMPASS facilitator. All participants will have time to present the material they would like feedback on and opportunity to get feedback from peers and the COMPASS facilitator.
This session will be held on February 6, 2026 from 10-11:15am PT and can be completed instead of or in addition to your capstone project for an additional $75 (select add-on at check-out).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is your refund policy?
If you request a refund within 7 days of the first workshop you will receive an automatic full refund minus the Eventbrite processing fee. If you cancel within 7 days of the first workshop, you will receive a 50% refund minus the Eventbrite processing fee if paid through Eventbrite. If you cancel within 24 hours of the first workshop, you will not be eligible to receive a refund. If you cancel within 24 hours of the first workshop, have technological issues during the workshop, or unexpectedly need to leave the workshop early, we will determine on a case by case basis whether or not you can receive credit for a future workshop.
If you attended one or more workshops before requesting a refund, we deduct the standard value of the ticket(s) used from the purchase price. For example, if you attended one workshop before requesting a refund, we will deduct $150 (general admission price) from your refund.
If you have any questions contact us at: trainings@compassscicomm.org
I missed a session or can’t attend one of the sessions. How can I make it up?
We will be happy to provide you with a seat in a future workshop but our workshop calendar is designed to provide a variety of topics, so we cannot guarantee that workshops covering the same course content as the Skill Sprint will be offered again this year.
I’ve taken the Strategic Communication Workshop before. Do I need to retake?
If you’ve taken the workshop in the last year, you can sign up to start with the next workshop in the sprint (select the 3-workshop option at checkout). However, we still highly recommend taking the first workshop as each of our facilitators brings their own lens to the material, and our emphasis on practice and feedback in our workshops means you can always build your skills by focusing your Message Box on a different goal, audience, or topic. C. It’s also an opportunity to start getting to know your fellow Sprinters!
I’ve taken one of the other workshops before. Do I need to retake in order to receive a certificate?
We’ll consider requests to count previously attended workshops towards a certificate on a case-by-case basis. Whether a workshop counts will depend on how long ago you attended the workshop (no more than one calendar year), how much the workshop has changed since you attended, and whether you attended the full workshop.
I’m only interested in one/some of the workshops. Do I have to sign up for the whole sprint?
You can register for any of the workshops independent of participating in the sprint. If you want to attend more than one workshop, we recommend purchasing a class pass (which can be used for other workshops later on in the year as well)!