Train the Trainers- Essex

April 14th, 2008 by kirsty | Filed under Courses & Events.

Last week myself and Becky travelled (for ages) to Essex, and worked in a weird place called Witham. The hotel was actually in a place called Kelvedon, so after a 6 hour train journey we arrived at a small village with ducks and a few local pubs, only to find out they have no taxis or manners for that matter. Northerners are definitely the friendlier sort! Anyway, this meant we had a 45 minute walk with laptops, cameras, equipment and clothes uphill, along strange streets and across the A12, only to learn that Kelvedon is weirder than we first thought! (Have you ever felt that everyone you meet are just actors, and your being filmed? Truman show me thinks!)

However, we were working with 7 very normal teenagers who were a pleasure to work with. The aim of the first 2 days was to equip the volunteers with the sessions and facilitation skills they needed in order to run their own course for the following 2days. We did a range of activities from storytelling to session structures, ensuring they not only knew the sessions, but could deliver and support them too. One thing I found difficult was judging how much responsibility we actually give the volunteers. On one hand you don’t want to pressure them with running and planning sessions on their first time, but on the other if they’re enthusiastic and competent to do it- why not?! I think we all went on a mad journey the first two days, from confidence and enthusiasm to last minute nerves and session planning. This reminded of the feelings i used to get in my early stages in volunteering- when your keen but not fully sure if your good enough, if i ask a question will they doubt me, I’m i saying the right thing etc etc. And of course the nerves- which I still get now which is definitely a good thing!

Of course the plan changed immediately the next day due to times and group sizes, so luckily we expected this and didn’t have to rely on our original plans. “Always have a back up plan!”I believe the volunteers couldn’t have done a better job, the energy they demonstrated was amazing, and considering the long days we had they were still smiling at the end! It was also great to see the guys actually taking on board the skills we explored the first few days, and asking questions and using their initiative. There was never a point where they had run out of things to do! They worked very hard and made us proud, so thanks to:

Rachel, Arron, Stu (hya son), Chelsea, Joe, Sax and Dan.

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digitalyw 7 months ago 1 point
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This last 4 weeks has been madness! Well done to all of you - I really like this course with the thing of training up their own team of trainers to run a course straight after - its something I think could work well in Ireland too.

I think the Staffordshire group in May are after something similar too.

That thing of knowing how much responsibility to give the volunteers is hard enough with volunteers we've known for years let alone just for a couple of days! Speaking of which Jono & Maria have finally been let loose on their own course this weekend up in North Wales - good luck to them both!

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