Hi Catherine,
Welcome to the Community Tool Box (CTB) and Ask an Advisor, I hope you'll find our advice useful, directly applicable, timely, and accurate regarding your search for low cost focus group moderator training. Admittedly Catherine, this isn't an area in which I've had much exposure, but I remain undaunted! To answer your query I took a two-pronged approach, the first being to look within the CTB and the second to do a Google Search. What I found got me thinking about training on a budget so immediately thought of what you might be able to do on-line. I know it's not the same as sending folks to a training, but if you're on a budget it might just be a viable alternative. Speaking of which, as I mentioned I first looked within the CTB and found a whole section on conducting focus groups, the information contained therein could ostensibly be used for training; I hope you'll take this into consideration. Starting on our home page, look for and click on the "Learn A Skill" button at the top left side of the page. Click on "Table of Contents" and scroll down to the section entitled "Community Assessment." Click on "Chapter 3. Assessing Community Needs and Resources" and scroll down to "Section 6. Conducting Focus Groups." The main Section will provide you with all the information needed to conduct focus groups along with a checklist, examples, and a Power Point; in essence, this is really all you need to learn the intricacies of conducting focus groups. In reality Catherine, facilitating/moderating focus groups does not require a vast skill set and in fact, by watching two or three to see how they're run people get a sense as to whether this is something they want to do. In many respects, people who enjoy teaching, being in front of people, giving presentations, and who are outgoing seem to be the ones drawn to this type of research. I like moderating focus groups (not solely for the food) partly because in an early career I was a teacher and coach so it suits my personality. I digress. Anyway, have a look through our section on conducting focus groups to determine whether this will meet your training needs, I sure hope so.
Okay, as I also mentioned I did a Google search and to be honest with you Catherine the results were rather sparse. As you noted, RIVA and the Burke Institute came up over and over again, but are cost prohibitive. The QRCA website provides a number of resources - http://www.qrca.org/?training_discounts - but I'm not sure whether this fits the bill. I also saw that Northern Illinois University conducts focus group training as evinced by this pdf. - http://niu.edu/stuaff/aea/Resources/FY14DivisionPD_FocusGroupTraining.pdf. Maybe, just maybe if you can find out who within the Planning & Assessment Department put this presentation together she/he might be able to point you in a better direction than I'm doing. The last presentation I found - http://www.etr.org/ebi/assets/File/etr_best_practices_focus_groups.pdf - was conducted by Dr. Pam Drake (I don't know her personally) so you might want to get in touch with her, can't hurt.
So, with that Catherine I hope we've been able to point you in the right direction if not answered your query directly with useful information. If you find that our reply doesn't quite hit the mark please revisit us and we'll work together to find an suitable alternative. We wish you the best of success in your endeavors. Be well, take care, and do good work!
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