2010-03-12
Participation and Voices Training: Information for Children and Young People
Care Matters Partnership is committed to offering new and exciting opportunities to children in, and at the edge of, care. As part of this commitment we have made it possible for management and staff to challenge themselves on how they listen to the children and young people in their care.
As part of this challenge we have developed ‘The Participation and Voices Training’ to ensure that children and young people in care, like you, are listened to when it comes to decisions about children’s services and, most importantly, your own lives. The Participation and Voices Training has been prepared using the best bits of what is known about involving children and young people in care in planning (for example; how your children’s home is run or how support is provided), individual decisions (such as reviews) and your involvement in training others (passing on what you know about your care to those adults who are involved in your life).
The training course prepares young people, to train professionals and managers who care for children. Through this training, you will help them to:
- Understand a bit more about what it is like growing up in care
- Understand the effect they have on the young people they work with and how this can be a positive or a negative one
- Learn about the importance of listening to children and young people in care and involving them in decisions about the care they get and their own individual life choices
- Learn about how best to listen and involve children and young people in care
The Participation and Voices training is always delivered by young trainers in partnership with adult trainers who are in care or care leavers. To become a Young Trainer delivering Participation and Voices training you have to complete this course - Preparing the Trainer. Once you have completed the course you can work with an experienced adult trainer to deliver the Participation and Voices training in your organisation to staff and managers.
The main thing you will learn on the Participation and Voices Preparing the Trainer course is how to deliver the one day course to professionals working with children and young people in care.
Specifically though, you will learn:
- The ability to draw from your own experiences to inform professionals about your views, feelings and experiences – without having to ‘relive’ these feelings emotionally
- The confidence to communicate effectively with professionals- recognising power relationships and how to break down communication barriers
- Effective presentation skills to lead group discussions
- An understanding of children’s rights and the organisations policies
- An understanding of views and experiences of other young people in care both within the organisation and nationally.
- Skills in basic training to enable you to deliver the course
You will also learn all the details of the course you will deliver to professionals and the ‘exercises’ (games, in which people learn things) that you will lead.
At the end of the course you will:
- Be able to train professionals on the Participation and Voices Training
- Be able to work well within a team
- Listen more effectively
- Have more confidence
- Be able to present your thoughts and ideas to a group
And you will have had lots of fun doing it!
You will be doing the Preparing the Trainers course with up to five other young people around your age, some a little older and some a little younger. These are the people that you will be delivering the training with when you have completed the course – so you will get to know them well, make friends and learn how to work best together.
When you have completed the Preparing the Trainers course you will be ready to deliver the Participation and Voices Training. But, you won’t be doing this alone – up to two of your team members will also be delivering the training with you as well as an experienced adult trainer who you will have worked with on the Preparing the Trainers course.
Who will I train when I have done the Preparing the Trainers Course?
You will be training professionals who work with children and young people in care. Some of these people will be foster carers, social workers, managers or workers within a residential home. It will usually be a mix of these people. There will never be less than eight people you are training and never more than fourteen.
After the course there is preparation time before each training session that you deliver with your adult trainer where you will plan the session and who is going to do what bit. There will also be a session after the training you have delivered to have a check on how it went and if there is anything that can be done better next time.
Who is going to be training me on the Preparing the Trainers Course?
Your trainer is Matthew Huggins who is a care leaver. He went into care at the age of ten and left at sixteen and spent time in foster care, residential care as well as independent living. This year he wrote a book about his time in care and how he got through it, which is now read by lots of young people and adults across the country.
Although he is now twenty-nine (so not that young anymore!) he has worked in children’s rights and participation for a long time. He runs a company, which he set up, that works with local authorities who care for children – helping them to find better ways of working. One of the biggest jobs he has is to help people listen to children and young people in care more.
He knows a lot about the training and has worked with several groups of young people and many professionals on delivering the course. He believes that every young person who wants to can really make themselves into anything they dream of! They just need a lot of determination, a bit of help and some confidence.
The cost for attending open courses is £299 per delegate.