Sidewalk Counselor Training

 
In 2011 Pro-Life Wisconsin developed a sidewalk counselor training curriculum and went on the road teaching hundreds of new counselors at a dozen sessions in five Wisconsin communities. Each training session featured a panel of two to six expert panelists including 40 Days for Life leaders in Madison and Milwaukee, full-time volunteer pro-life missionaries with the Servants of Our Lady of Guadalupe and post-abortion counselors from Rachel's Vineyard.

Each sidewalk counseling session was open to the public free of charge and included training materials as well as a starter pack of educational materials to offer to abortion-minded, contraception-minded or post-abortive women and men.

Within two weeks of the first session in Madison, a newly trained counselor redirected a Planned Parenthood client to a 100 percent pro-life clinic specializing in women's health. This was just the first of numerous successes, however. One of the most encouraging success stories came from Kory, a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay student who reported using his training to turn a woman away from using hormonal birth control.

"I felt that the overall information for the training was IDEAL.  We received a strong variety from each speaker: everything from counseling tactics to biological facts to the spiritual side of counseling...and so much more! Each speaker brought a load of expertise and experience to the panel, and I was very impressed." 
-Kory, a newly trained Pro-Life Wisconsin sidewalk counselor