Growing2gether Facilitator Training Information
What Is Growing2gether
All young people in Scotland should have the best chance to fulfil their potential. No child should feel that they don’t belong. No young person should believe they have no future. Growing2gether offers two innovative programmes, which give disengaged young people the confidence, life skills and self-belief to thrive. Growing2gether Mentoring programme provides the opportunity for young people to volunteer in local nurseries as a mentor and role model to children needing additional support. Growing2gether ‘In the Community’ is a Youth Led Community project where young people design and deliver a project that addresses the needs of their local community.
Growing2gether Mentoring is a 16 – 18-week programme that gives young people the skills to address underlying issues that can lead to becoming disengaged; such as low self-esteem, low aspiration and educational attainment.
● One afternoon a week working with 8 disengaged young people
● Accredited Vocational SQA qualification in Personal Development, Level 4: Self and Community and Self Awareness Units
● Innovative work experience scheme where, for 1.5 hours each afternoon, young people mentor a child in a nursery
● 1.5 hour facilitated learning sessions for young people led by 2 specially trained facilitators
Aims of the programme
● Provide children in the nursery with opportunities to address their developmental needs
● To provide young people with volunteering and work experience, with responsible work to do and a respected role in their community
● Enable youth to discover their inherent character strengths, building work and life skills so that they fulfil their educational, employment and personal potential
● Build social capital and a sense of community belonging
Growing2gether in the Community is a 16 session Youth Led programme where young people design and deliver their own youth-led community projects, supported by community mentors. Throughout the process of designing and implementing projects to make their community better, young people acquire valuable skills that will help them in their future careers as well as in their educational and personal lives. They learn many work related skills including teamwork, cooperation, leadership, communication, financial (budgeting) and negotiation.
By setting small individual achievable goals as well as achieving group goals, participants develop the self-efficacy and confidence in achieving what they set out to achieve. This leads to raised aspirations, enhanced wellbeing and connectedness in their community and strengthened relationships with peers and family. young people research the needs of their local community and design a community programme which addresses a main issue (of their choice).
Fee Structure
For the six month training period the fee is £100 a day, with the potential of becoming an employee (dependent upon a review). The self employed fee is then £125 a day. With the right candidate a full time position may be offered.
Training Commitment
Delivery of programme(s)
Growing2gether Nursery Programme: six hours per week to allow time to prepare for, to deliver and to debrief Growing2gether during the 18-week training period. This equates to 1.5 hour preparation time with the Growing2gether lead facilitator, 3 hours direct contact time and 45 minute debrief after each session.
Growing2gether In the Community: six hours per week to allow time to prepare for, to deliver and to debrief Growing2gether during the 6-month training period. Times will be flexible according to the development and needs of the group as their community project unfolds.
The Facilitator Classroom Training (7 days)
● 7 days of training in Transformational Youth work and Positive Psychology applied to working with disengaged young people, consisting of a two-day induction followed by 5 one-day sessions (spread over 6 months).
● This professional training provides transferable skills that can be used in all work with young people
● Please note there is no payment involved to attend the training.
Training Modules include:
● Establishing a ‘container’ to firmly and positively hold disengaged young people:
● Values, Transformational Education, a potential orientated approach, relating to more than surface behaviour (values lead to attitudes which leads to behaviour)
● Forming healthy attachment with young people, attachment theory, relational dynamics, mentoring and role modelling. Building healthy attachments through relationship
● Facilitating young people learning skills of self- reflection – awareness of choice and consequence – making choices that get the outcomes that they want
● Reframing – turning challenges/problems into developmental steps forward and into a learning experience
● A transformational approach, Mindfulness, becoming a reflexive practitioner
● Mindsets – shifting from a negative (I can’t) to a positive – based on work of Dr Carol Dweck
● Group dynamics: process vs. content, stages of group dynamics, the need for both inclusion and self-assertion
● Adolescent and youth development: working with challenging behaviour, conflict resolution. Relating to the deeper need behind behaviour (includes Erik Erikson’s developmental stages)
● Young people and internal multiplicity: finding identity, trying out different identities
● Positive Psychology and Appreciative Inquiry: its value and application to education
● A Coaching approach, coaching skills and application
Training Dates: All dates 9:30am – 4:00pm
● Module 1-2 17 – 18 August 2023 – Induction – In person
● Module 3 22 Sep 2023 – Via zoom
● Module 4 27 Oct 223 – In person
● Module 5 24 Nov 2023 – In person
● Module 6 8 Dec 2024 – Via zoom
● Module 7 19 Jan 2024 – Completion – In person
Due to the approach that Growing2gether takes with young people, and the multi-levelled skills that are necessary, facilitators go through a carefully constructed training curriculum that builds their abilities to work with this more marginalised group. The trainings’ intensive nature requires trainees to work on themselves in much the same way that they will be working with the young people. This experiential form of teaching, mixed with theory, is based on a confluent educational approach, integrating personal experience with theoretical understanding of the material. This approach recognises the value of ‘learning by experience’, which enables the trainee to more fully integrate the theoretical content of the course. Once the training is complete, Facilitators can then support the practical training of new Facilitators.
Comments from previous participants
●‘Having never studied anything like this, I’ve had my eyes opened and I’m looking at what I do at school differently’
● ‘An eye-opening course which would benefit all who work in education’
● ‘I liked all aspects of the course and really enjoyed the people on it’.
● ‘I felt the session on becoming a reflexive practitioner and working with
challenging young people topics were important and will support my everyday practice’.
● ‘Your approach to working with challenging behaviour is particularly helpful in helping young people to take responsibility’.
● ‘I found the transformational approach to working with young people, working with challenging young people and a coaching methodology particularly useful and applicable to all my work with young people’.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT
admin@growing2gether.org.uk
