Following the successful delivery of a program called Bounce in Torry Academy, we were delighted to be approached by St Machar Academy to provide a similar program for a small mixed group of S2s. These workshops focus on building resilience, coping with negative emotions and thinking positively about the future, which are essential life skills, especially for young people with behavioural or academic difficulties.
This gave the Relationship Revolution team a unique opportunity to work alongside the therapeutic listening team. Together we decided to deliver several creative therapy sessions, using art and design to develop topics such as anger and relationships with others, followed by a program of Bounce, which was tailored specifically to focus on managing anger and coping positively with failure.
Working with this group was one of the most challenging and also the rewarding experiences I have had whilst working for Choices. We learnt the importance of getting to know each group member individually, and of tailoring the material to their particular academic and emotional needs. Having begun by being highly disruptive and disrespectful to one another, by the end of our time with them the group were able to work together and think more positively about their abilities, allowing them to grow in self-confidence and mutual respect. The creative sessions using clay and painting were particularly successful, as they allowed the each young person to think about the different relationships in their lives and how they fit in with the group. My highlight was the final session, when we plotted plans and hopes for the future, and each member was able to form aspirations and hopes for themselves. Feedback from the school staff noted ‘a marked improvement’ in the whole group, and recognised the success of ‘empowering pupils to see how people can deal with negative situations in a successful way.’
It was a privilege to take a program that had been such a success in one of our partner schools and see it also working well in a different environment, and our hope is that we will continue to deliver similar programs within St Machar.
Bounce!
At Choices we love to encourage and equip young people to reach their full potential and one of the ways we do this is by promoting resilience so that they can ‘bounce back’ from the difficulties that life throws at us. We believe resilience is key to ALL members of society but psychologists have stressed the importance of resilience for those who live in high-risk environments.
Our team created a 6 week resilience course designed initially, for boys. After the third course was underway, the school approached us asking if we could do the same for girls, so I had the pleasure of running the FIRST EVER Girls Bounce.
The course covered self-awareness and reflective thinking; the difference between thoughts and feelings and how they can be managed; success and failure through re-framing failure as a concept; thinking about the future and who can help us to get what we want; and recognising and valuing our own skills and abilities.
There were many memorable moments and high points throughout the six weeks we had together. Firstly, Bounce brought together eight girls who wouldn’t normally spend time together and developed friendships and teamwork amongst the girls. One of my favourite moments was seeing the girls supporting each other and working together to achieve a common goal which would not have happened during the first week. It was such a privilege to see the girls grow and develop over the course and it was apparent that none of the girls wanted it to end. The girls expressed a new found confidence in themselves and their abilities as well and increased self-esteem and a wider support network.
Our hope is that we will be able to roll out this course across all the schools we work with overtime.
How do you learn?
How do you learn?
Perhaps some of us assume learning happens instinctively, like a baby starting to speak or taking its first steps: we’re just sponges soaking up the information around us. And while this might have been true in the first years of our development, learning as a young person or adult requires a more thoughtful, intentional approach.
The Relationship Revolution youth work team had an excellent meeting with board director and school head teacher Neil Hendry on August 7th about learning and lesson planning for young people. Discussing how to put together a well-organized and effective lesson was a great refresher for all of us on the Relationship Revolution team.
No matter what you’re learning about, a clear, intentionally organized and well-prepared lesson can go miles to help you retain knowledge, and what subject could be more important than sex and relationships? We trust that these kind of trainings – alongside our own careful lesson-planning – will make the Relationship Revolution Team even more effective and engaging as we reach out to young people in Aberdeen!
Sportschallenge set to support north-east causes…
We recently received this great news from Sports Challenge:
Thanks to your support, three north-east charities which focus on supporting people in achieving their goals in life will also benefit from Sportschallenge 2014.
In addition to Maggie’s Aberdeen and Children’s Aid, we are giving our backing to Choices Aberdeen, Aberdeen Cyrenians and Mental Health Aberdeen (MHA), which will receive a share of funds raised.
Last year’s Sportschallenge raised more than £100,000 for deserving charities and with a record number of competitors signed up, we hope that this year’s sell-out event will surpass that record.
Nick Dalgarno, managing director at Simmons, said: “Every year Sportschallenge gives us the chance to give something back to the community through support for deserving local charities. With so many nominations being submitted, it has been a difficult task landing on this year’s beneficiaries. Those chosen have all met our criteria of being small, local and lacking in significant corporate profiling. Aside from a five number donation, the real benefit of being associated with Sportschallenge is the opportunity to be front and centre at an evening attended by over 700 professionals.
“The money raised will make a real difference to people in the north-east, going directly to charities which provide much-needed support and care.
“With support from our Gold Sponsors CNR, Viking SeaTech and Derrick Offshore, Simmons has hosted this event for three years, and it keeps getting bigger and better. Sportschallenge is something that we are immensely proud to be a part of and we are all looking forward to raising substantial funds to help these important local causes.”
Choices Aberdeen promotes positive relationships; supporting and empowering people in making choices which will enhance their physical and emotional wellbeing. It offers support to youth groups and young mothers.
Linsey Revell, youth counselling manager and acting centre manager of Choices Aberdeen, explains that on a relatively small budget the charity does a lot of work valued not only by the young people they work with, but also by staff in schools and other services they work with.
She said: “We are delighted to have been selected by Sportschallenge. Choices Aberdeen is passionate about promoting and supporting positive relationships and the additional funding will allow us to extend the education and intervention work we do in schools and with other youth projects in the city.”
Job Opportunites
We have a couple of very exciting job opportunities here at Choices, please see the images below for all the details!
Youth Work Summit
Recently a couple of our Youth Development Workers had the opportunity to attend a youthwork conference with a difference. At Choices we want to always offer the highest quality services that we can. We love to dig ourselves deep into current research so you’ll often see us at conferences and courses; from attachment and bereavement to YOLO and xenophobia we want to understand our young people and the tools and capacities we need to assist them.
The Youthwork Summit (YWS) is a large scale one day conference where speakers – whether experts in their fields or youth workers doing unique work – are given 10 or 15 minutes to address a particular aspect of youthwork. This focused approach encourages a higher quality of presentation, brings to the surface information which is relevant to the whole audience and allows for a plethora of speakers. Accompanied by a handpicked selection of youthwork organisations and NGOs in the stalls, the summit offered real inspiration from and for those working with young people as well as opportunities for networking.
In the same way that we want to help young people understand their relationships we want you to understand young people. Check out one speaker – Meg Cannon who has recently launched TheKokostory.com an online positive-discovery project for girls – as she tells the stories teenage girls living around us.
[vimeo 95597329 w=482 h=271]
Annual Children’s Mental Health Conference
Grace, Andrew and myself (Rhona) attended the Annual Children’s Mental Health Conference in Glasgow on the 28th May.
I think we all came away inspired by the speakers who were mostly passionate about their area. The whole day was fast paced and Jim Taylor did a fabulous job of ensuring everybody kept to their allotted time.
A highlight and a good start to the conference was singing Ali Bali Bee with Tam Baillie Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People. Rest assured this was not a duet but a reminder of a song we probably learned in our early years “sitting on our Mammies knee”! He emphasised how crucially important the early years are for determining Children’s mental health and wellbeing throughout their years. Mr Baillie believes the scottish attitude towards Children and young people is changing although may still have a way to go. He covered this with the following points –
- Children need love!
- Children need secure attached relationships
- Children need boundaries and balance especially within social media
- Encourage healthy eating
- Routinisation of children’s sleep patterns
- The importance of play
Other speakers included –
Dr Helen Minnis, Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the university of Glasgow. Her research focus has been on Reactive Attachment Disorder. Dr Minnis spoke on Understanding Complexity in Maltreated Children with Psychiatric Problems, and why only some maltreated Children have mental health problems.
She got us thinking about dandelions and orchids! Dandelions will grow anywhere, whereas orchids need a lot of attention and looking after!
Martin Donnelly, a Nurse Specialist from Yorkhill Hospital spoke on how we can support CYP who self harm!
Dr Claire Stubbs, Counselling Psychologist and Psychotherapist talked about building resilience in a Technological Age.
Bill Colley, The UK ADHD Partnership, covered latest developments in our understanding of ADHD
Jan Melia, Outreach and development worker with crewe2000, looked at CYP’s relationship with Drugs and Alcohol
Steve Sweeney, Director of Bereavement Sector Support Scotland, Containing Trauma, Bereavement and Loss
Finally we heard from John J Reilly, Professor of Physical Activity and Public Health Science. John addressed the extent to which exercise might improve educational attainment, mental health, and wellbeing, in children and adolescents.
All these presentations can be heard online for the next month by following these instructions.
Speakers’ Presentations: You will be able to view speakers’ presentations on
our website <http://www.medicacpd.com/> www.medicacpd.com Please enter the
login. (Top right on the homepage)
Username: sh14@medicacpd.com Password: medicacpd
Play Therapy Training
Rhona (our new Youth Counsellor) and Linsey have recently spent the weekend in Dunfermline at brilliant and inspiring Play Therapy training. The training is with Children Matters and this weekend was the second of three. They are experiencing it to be very high quality. They are pretty exhausted at the end of the weekend, possibly due to the fact that as well as looking at attachment from a theoretical perspective they are also having to examine their own attachment processes now and as children! Tough going at times! They are spending much of the weekend up to our elbows in playdough, paints and tapping into their inner thesps to do some drama work- all very creative and with amazing results. They both think this training will be really beneficial in their work with young people and are looking forward to the next, and sadlly final weekend of training at the end of June.
Young Mums
It has been a busy few months with Young Mums since we set up two new Mums and babies groups in Mastrick and Tillydrone in the beginning of February. It has been great to see some new young mums from the areas come along to the groups. They have enjoyed getting together to have a chat and join in with singing PEEP songs with their children, always a noisy time with musical instruments! The children have enjoyed taking part in activities like kinder gym, playdoh, water and sand play. The mums have loved hand massages, nails and card-making. We have also welcomed a few visitors to the groups like Christine from CFine who came and spoke about food banks in the city which provide affordable good quality fruit & veg, the mums took away veg packs to make some warming hearty soup! At the end of April, the mums and children enjoyed the puppet show performed by Angelina’s Puppet Theatre. Susan from Childsmile visited and gave the mums information about dental care, the children received new toothbrushes and egg timers.
At Tillydrone we have been able to run some cooking sessions, which have given the mums opportunities to learn to cook healthier family meals like spaghetti & meatballs, chicken korma & rice and spring rolls & stir fry noodles. After cooking, the food always go down well for our lunch for the mums and the children!
We have also started baby massage classes at Mastrick, the sensory room at the Family centre provides a space for the mums to be relaxed and learn about the benefits of massage for their babies. There has been lots of chat about birth experiences, feeding and sleeping! The mums have shared their experiences about giving massage at home.
Northfield…
Up on the hill sits Northfield Academy, a school whose motto is ‘Learn to live well’. Myself and a group of committed volunteers aim to contribute to the fulfillment of this school motto by running a lads drop-in on Wednesday lunchtimes. By taking some time to interact and respect these young people we hope to be positive role models and listening ears for them, and what better way to do this than playing football and FIFA13? (I know, we need to update) We split our time between being nutmegged and generally shown-up skill wise in real life football and then the week after go through it all again in the virtual world. This taps into something the young people genuinely want to do, in fact, when asked what they would do with £1500 the most popular suggestion was to buy some proper goals to use in our games! Over the one and a half years(ish) this project has been running we have got to know some of the lads well, we’ve had to deal with the ball being stolen by the older students (real flashback moment that one), and suffered in the heat of the gym; through all of it we want to show our care for them and share in the classic pursuit of football. For the future we hope to develop our relationships with these young people and stay with them through their time at school.
