It's All About You.

The aim of the project is to try to give people transferable knowledge and skills – and the confidence and reassurance to use these skills - that they can use to move on in their lives. This is done in three key areas; Core Skills, Life Skills and Employment Skills. Through this support, we hope to help more people to achieve their life goals and gain education, employment and volunteering opportunities and sustain these for themselves.  Support is available to anyone living in the area, and is delivered both in Group Work Sessions and One to One depending on your individual needs.
The project has been set up to provide support for people who –

• Have not necessarily benefited from school education
• Have not got experience in education or employment
• Are returning to the workplace after a break
• Need to learn the skills they need to move forwards with their life
• Would like to know more about feeling confident in themselves and their abilities

What type of support is offered?

 

Core Skills

• Numeracy – this works best delivered on a one to one basis, your Support Worker will establish your  level of existing  knowledge and understanding and build on that, making simple sums that are transferable into real life situations and problem solving situations; ie understanding your bank statement or working out the price of your shopping.  Suitable for anyone with difficulties in numeracy

• Literacy – this works in both group work and one to one and your Support Worker will immediately introduce you to the idea of using reading, writing and understanding in real life situations; ie reading signs, letters, bills, prescriptions, instructions.  Your existing level of understanding is assessed and built upon.  Suitable for all levels of literacy needs

• Communication – this includes Active Listening, Emotional Intelligence, Self Awareness and Self Management, negative communication behaviours, empathic listening and how to communicate effectively orally, non-verbally, in written form and how to express your feelings positively, openly and non-confrontationally and give and receive feedback on them.  Case studies, ideas and real problems can all be used here.  Suitable for everyone, in particular those who may struggle to be heard, hear others or communicate effectively

• Information and Communication Technology – Your Support Worker will work with you to gain basic knowledge of computers and computing, managing an email address, accessing the internet safely and appropriately, applying for things on-line, creating a basic Word document and saving it.  Suitable for beginners.

• Problem Solving – Your Support Worker will give you the skills you need to define a problem, seek a solution to the problem and implement the solution and then look at how to review the effectiveness of the solution, looking at things inside and outside your control and looking at effective decision making, the problem solving cycle and problem solving techniques, looking at ‘labels’ (pre-set ideas) and how to overcome these.  You can work together to give case studies of any problem and possible solutions.  Suitable for everyone.

• Working With Others – You can learn how to work with difficult people, how to be an effective team member, giving and gaining respect from others, conducting, modifying and evaluating relationships, personal, working, official (such as social workers and other officials), effective communication, how to get what you want from relationships and ensure others do to, strengths and weaknesses and how to gain more strengths and address your weaknesses, the ABC (Antecedents, Behaviour and Consequences) of behaviour.  Suitable for everyone, teaches core skills that are transferable to any situation involving others includes examples and scenarios.

 

Life Skills

• Assertiveness and Confidence – You can learn about self esteem, how to be assertive not aggressive, win-win scenarios and how to achieve them, goal setting and ‘As I am and As I Would Like to Be’ worksheets, learn about recalling successes and creating and boosting your confidence, ‘The Building Blocks For Change’ and the power of positive thinking.  How to say ‘No’ – to anyone, in any circumstance in ways that are heard but are not risky or confrontational.  This is suitable for everyone, is very informal and does not make demands on those who may be shy or lacking in confidence, includes examples and scenarios.

• Empathy and Advocacy – You can learn about how to be empathetic (the ability to identify with and understand somebody else's feelings or difficulties), empathetic communication, emotional intelligence, understanding from another viewpoint, recognising others feelings and responding appropriately to them, resolving conflict positively, improving non-verbal communication, how to use skills to influence a decision, outcome or circumstance, motivational skills.  This is suitable for everyone, those in and seeking employment, those who wish to communicate strongly, those who seek to understand others, this is transferable to most situations, includes examples and scenarios.

• Increasing Internal Control - Locus of Control refers to your perception about the underlying main causes of events in your life.  Or, more simply, exploring whether you believe that your destiny is controlled by yourself or by external forces (such as fate, god, or powerful others)?  This group is about increasing control in your own life, making your own decisions, recognising things that are outside your control (the weather, who your family members are etc) and being accountable for your own behaviour.  We will give you tips and ideas on how to increase and keep your internal control even in difficult situations.  This group is suitable for everyone and is particularly for those who feel they are not in charge of their own lives or who may wish to begin to take charge of themselves again.

• Managing your Feelings – We can work with you to learn about Emotional Intelligence and give you a broad over view of feelings both positive and negative, what they are, the effects they can have, how to manage stress, grief, frustration, anger, raise awareness of core emotions, how to feel better without hurting anyone, how to achieve emotional balance, conflict resolution and active listening.  Suitable for everyone, initially broad based overviews with more focused work depending on the groups needs and wishes.  We work hard to make sure you leave us feeling happy and positive after this session.

• Managing Stress – Stress affects us all and you can learn more about what stress is, how to recognise it, how it affects you, your life and your relationships, how to reduce and manage stress effectively and how to incorporate this into your everyday life.  This is linked to your own emotional awareness.  Suitable for everyone, quite focused and very positive group includes examples and scenarios which are broad based.

• Health – This group looks at healthy options for life, eating and exercise and how to incorporate these into your everyday life. Lifestyle choices, managing health related issues, accessing health services – how to and where to and why, mental health, physical health and emotional health – suitable for everyone.

Employment Skills

• Writing your Curriculum Vitae – You can work with us to learn how to write a professional CV or update your current CV, we can give you templates and tips and ideas on what to include, how to identify your skills and highlight them, selling yourself, overcoming barriers to employment, applying for jobs, overcoming literacy and IT needs and how to write an effective and interesting CV – suitable for everyone and can be both handwritten or done on a computer with the aim of leaving the session with your own CV.

• Interview Skills & Self Presentation – You will learn how to present yourself well, what the ‘give a good interview’ rules are, questions you may be asked and questions you can ask at an interview, communication skills, body language and other non-verbal communication.  Whilst aimed at job-seekers the skills taught here are transferable to any situation so being interviewed at a Children’s Panel, by a Social Worker or at the Job Centre, suitable for everyone.

• Gaining Experience and Education and formal qualifications – This is a fun and interesting sessions to give you ideas, strategies and goal setting tips, to learn about volunteering, apprenticeships, Job Centre opportunities and to support you to identify and access your choices in education both formal and informal, on-line learning, training courses and employment – suitable for everyone.

• We will also offer you one to one support to reduce offending, deal with trauma – past and present – reduce drug and/or alcohol use, attend appointments, manage your mail, accompany you to new places, do role play sessions to reassure you and give you confidence, motivation and reassurance and an opportunity to have someone you can speak to and who can provide a listening ear.

 

 

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