CASE STUDY: Equipping the Educators

How Train-the-Trainer ISS Programming Built Lasting Digital Safety Capacity at Bro/Sis

The Story

‍In spring 2025, Cyber Collective partnered with The Brotherhood Sister Sol (BroSis) to pilot a 90-minute Train-the-Trainer session with their full staff. This was the first time BroSis mentors received Cyber Collective’s Internet Street Smarts (ISS) in-person workshop, a training designed to help adults better understand and navigate the realities of digital harm.

This general audience course became the foundation for our youth curriculum, ISS Teens, which adapts the same core content — data literacy, scam spotting, AI risks, and emotional safety — for younger internet users. Trusted adults are the first line of support for young people. When they understand the structural, emotional, and behavioral sides of digital threats, they are better equipped to guide youth with care and credibility.

What Happened

‍We facilitated an interactive 90-minute session with 26 BroSis staff members. The training included:

The full ISS core workshop, adapted from our online course
Conversations about privacy, digital dignity, and how systems create harm
Trauma-informed facilitation and de-escalation strategies
Practical guides, tools, and resources to take with them

Participants completed a short quiz before and after the session, rating their confidence in maintaining privacy and safety online on a scale from 1 to 5.

The Impact

Average confidence increased from 2.84 to 4.32
The percentage of staff rating themselves a 4 or 5 rose from 27 percent to 84 percent

Here is what participants shared:

“This was amazing and so digestible—really looking forward to implementing these tools and utilizing the resources you shared.”

“The information was extremely helpful. I would have loved time to implement these strategies in real time with guidance.”

Why It Worked

We showed, not just told: BroSis mentors experienced the same ISS workshop the public receives. They saw how facilitation, tone, and structure help create space for conversations about digital safety. It built trust, reduced fear around complicated topics, and gave staff a clear structure they could use going forward.
It is easy to carry forward: Participants left with facilitator guides, worksheets, and tools to help them apply what they learned. This gives organizations a way to keep building ISS knowledge without needing outside facilitators every time.‍
Youth benefit when adults are prepared: Each BroSis mentor works with dozens of young people every week. By building digital literacy skills at the mentor level, we extend protection, awareness, and real conversations far beyond one workshop. The ISS Teens curriculum works best when trusted adults already understand the foundation.

The Big Picture

‍The BroSis pilot showed that Internet Street Smarts is more than a training. When mentors experience the full ISS workshop, they gain confidence, language, and perspective to help create safer digital spaces with the youth they serve.

This training strengthened staff, built trust between generations, and gave BroSis a model they can keep using. In a digital world shaped by AI risks, scams, and the emotional fallout from online harm, mentorship matters. ISS gives mentors the tools to meet that challenge.

Want to bring Internet Street Smarts to your organization? Reach out to learn how Cyber Collective’s ISS programs can help your staff, mentors, and young people stay safer online.