| The aim was to expand the horizons, beyond the existing very job focused provision, of some of the very able members of the homeless people who live in the Foyer Sheltered Housing Scheme for young people under 25 at risk. To give the participants confidence in their own perceptions of themselves and others and to then use this knowledge to handle themselves and others more skilfully.
After hearing about the Foyer Federation at a National Adult Educational Guidance Association Conference (NAEGA) in 2001, the Co-ordinator of the WPRDU instigated discussions with the local Foyer in January 2002. The Foyer Training Manager felt that there were a lot of opportunities already available to the residents for occupationally related courses but the issue was that a lot of the young people could not get over their past disappointments or see ways to overcome the barriers that they perceived for themselves.
The idea of using the Myers Briggs Type indicator (MBTI) was suggested along with a philosophy informed by short-term solution focused counselling techniques. The MBTI sorts people into 16 personality types and is a valuable developmental tool helping participants identify what skills and activities they are good at. It was decided that a workshop developed to encapsulate these two ideas would be developed and piloted. A meeting was held by the Training Manager with 2 colleagues on the Professional Register of Continuing Education, who are
Myers Briggs practitioners and who have extensive experience of working with vulnerable groups, to ascertain whether such a workshop would be appropriate, and if it were, how it should be structured.
The Myers Briggs test requires a reasonably high level of comprehension and the concepts themselves are quite complex and subtle. The Training Manager was clear that a significant number of her client group were intelligent but suffered from a combination of emotional problems, lack of commitment and lack of self-esteem. The test was conducted upon the Training Manager and a written report provided on the outcomes. She found it very accurate and helpful and was very keen that it.should be offered to some of the residents. A one-day workshop was decided upon as the best mode of delivery.The Training Manager recruited for the workshop by speaking to particular people whom she thought would benefit from the workshop and some posters advertising it were displayed.
Impact Outcomes and Achievements of the Sub-Project
Initially eight people signed up for the workshop. Six people came to the workshop and two had cold feet about being involved for a whole day. The tutors made clear that it was possible to benefit from half a day but they were obviously anxious about the commitment and the Training Manager said this was very typical with this client group. Four people stayed: three young men and one young woman.They were very responsive and involved in the exercises and descriptions - in fact frequently adding their own examples. There had to be lots of short activities to keep them involved and interested. The test itself takes about 40 minutes to complete and the tutors were anxious that the participants would not be put off by not being able to read or understand some of the words. The tutors were very open about their own experiences and the Myers Briggs model gave them a framework in which to place them. The tutors were very clear about our own type preferences and what that meant about their strengths and problem areas and shared our strategies for dealing with their weaknesses.This led to discussion about how this self-knowledge enabled you to be honest about yourself and enabled you to then manage yourself.
At the end of the morning the group sorted out each person's individual type and were thrilled with the result because they felt that the description fitted them so well. Discussion took place talked about their personality type in relation to the work they eventually hoped to do and their experience of learning.
The Training Manager was very positive about the immediate outcome of the workshop and in fact wanted to consider it as a pre-requisite for young people applying for places in the Foyer.
This has given the WPRDU experience in working with the Foyer and in developing products that can be delivered in a short time with diverse target groups. The participants felt able to use the information with little support and to put it into practice immediately.
The programme has been written up; The activities were reported at the National Association for Educational Guidance for Adults in 2002.. |