I’d like to do something a little different.
For today’s blog post I intend to highlight two members of staff from an organisation based here in Stoke-on-Trent. The two people are Rebecca and Kerry, both of whom are Service Co-ordinators with Concrete, which is part of the Honeycomb Group.
What is Concrete you may ask? Well, here it is from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, to quote Concrete: “If you’re without a home or at risk of losing your home you’ve come to the right place. We’re building concrete futures for the many without a voice, without a plan and without a home.”
Rebecca and Kerry are service co-ordinators, working with people across North Staffordshire who may have experienced trauma and / or living with multiple and complex needs. Both are instrumental in supporting people into positive life change and hopefully engaging with people to see that life can get better and an improved life can be maintained.
They came along and took part in my two-day Motivational Interviewing course, ‘Inspiring Change Behaviour.’ This was all down to the sterling work of the wonderful Insight Academy. I work closely with Darren, Jonathan, Sam et al from the Insight Academy to create engaging and exciting learning and development opportunities. It is an organisation that us folks from Stoke need to feel rightly proud of, for both the breadth of education opportunities on offer and the fact that the learning is informed by lived experience.
So, what’s the reason I’m highlighting the two members of staff from Concrete?
To put it bluntly, they both made a huge impact on me and the others in the class. They are clearly committed, motivated and enthusiastic but more than anything they are both brilliant human beings. Their fellow learners remarked to me how knowledgeable and above all, how compassionate they both were. It was beautiful to hear professionals from other organisations observe Rebecca and Kerry’s energy and conviction and how they had impacted the learning experience of other people.
It would appear that this is mutual admiration! I have asked them if they mind my sharing their feedback. It was especially rewarding to read how Ryan’s film had impressed the both of them. Sharing the stories of clients, customers and residents along with their ‘battles’ with ‘hard-to-reach’ services has been something I have always included on my training for the past twelve years. These are the voices of real, authentic people. The Insight Academy has championed the voices of Expert Citizens and long may it continue. People like Ryan who has lived with traumatic experience and embraced a new way of life. Ryan is now a fantastic dad, a wonderful partner to Charlotte and a fantastically quick-witted human being. In fact, he’s the Ryan he was always meant to be and I’m suitably impressed by his motivation and I’m also proud to call him my friend.
Here’s what the two stars from Concrete had to say about the training.
Yes, it feels to some like the world is a little broken and bleak at the moment, but when you have people like Rebecca, Kerry and Ryan in it, the light shines through the darkness. Onward, ever onward.
“The training has been absolutely brilliant. Steven is a fantastic trainer. The use of real experiences and quotes brings the training to life as we know we deal with those issues and comments daily. The group work is fantastic, as daunting as it may seem at first everything is thoroughly explained and explored. The use of videos and interviews helps massively with the learning.
To hear the difficulties from the people who have lived it makes me even more inspired to continue to help people to change their circumstances and life. I admire Ryan for being brave enough to share his story with us!!!!!!!
The training has made me think about how I engage with my clients. How i can get the best from them and more importantly to make conversations far more comfortable for them to talk about issues they are having. I know this technique doesn’t work with everyone, but I already have clients in mind who I know will really benefit.
I will be implementing this into my working life asap as I want the best for my clients. I know I have been guilty of trying to get as much help as possible as soon as possible and I can clearly see how this can be as much a hindrance as it is a help. I will be using the six-step change model to work through issues one at a time with a clear plan.”
Rebecca
“I really enjoyed the course, there was lots of information, the tasks we completed kept the training
interactive and interesting. I enjoyed the group work as it gave us chance to talk through the tasks and hear other people’s points of view.
I especially enjoyed listening to Ryan’s story. Ryan well done and thank you for sharing! I have gained a lot of techniques that I will be putting into practice with my customers. The training really made me think of how important to actively listen to my customers. I will also be using the six-step change plan,
Finally thank you to Steven for a great two days.”
Kerry