Services offered by St Luke's Anglicare
Training and Consultancy
Key Training Contacts - Di O'Neil or Eloise Neylon 03 5440 1100 or and Linda Crawford – 03 54420500
St Lukes Spring School for 2008 starts on October 13th and goes until October 18th.
Click here for the flyer with all the details and a registration form
What training and consultancy does St Luke's offer?
We offer training and consultancy in strengths-based practice regardless of the service delivery context or field of work that people are engaged in. We offer packages such as ‘The Strengths Approach’ and ‘Strengths-based Supervision’. However, we don't only offer packages. We consult closely with organisations that request training or consultancies and design tailor made and exciting workshops to meet their unique needs, whether these are for front line work, management, strategic planning or team work.
Training requests and business arrangenents are handled through Innovative Resources, St Luke’s publishing house and bookshop.
What distinguishes St Luke's style of training and service delivery?
We have tried to bring the strengths philosophy and social justice principles into our service delivery and our organisation as well. This is called 'parallel process'. We have also been able to articulate our learning from our own experience and that of others in ways that seem to speak to anyone involved in human service work. We have done this through training and the development of resources and tools that are published by Innovative Resources, and also by carrying the strengths approach into our community development work. An indication that people find the training powerful and useful is the interest that has been generated from individuals and organisations and their desire to develop this way of working.
Useful texts: The Strengths Approach. Wayne McCashen. 2005. St Lukes Innovative Resources
Building Community - The Shared Action Experience. Linda Beilharz. St Lukes Innovative Resources
Communities of Hope. Wayne McCashen 2204 St Luke’s Innovative Resources
What does strengths-based practice mean?
It means we operate on the assumption that people have strengths and resources for their own empowerment. But it's just as important to recognise that structural and cultural impediments constrain people's empowerment and that these need to be addressed in ways that enable the people we work with to control the process of change. We call this 'client-directed' practice. In other words, clients, not workers define goals, and identify and mobilise strengths and resources. This means that workers and agencies need to be ever mindful of the danger we can be to people by inadvertently using power over others and approaching them as if we are the experts rather than approaching them as the experts.
What have we learned from doing this training?
Learning is mutual. The people we provide training to also inspire and inform our practice. We have learned so much through the networks and relationships gained through training delivery. One important thing (deleted) has become clear. The strengths approach is most successful where there is parallel process at all levels of an organisation. The carriers of the culture of strengths-based work will generally be in the 'middle' of an organisation. So we have developed frameworks for strengths-based supervision and program coordination. We have established a longterm relationship with some organisations working over time with senior managers and across all areas of their organisation’s work.
What impact does the training have on others?
Many people have told us how the experience of training has led to profound impact on their organisations, clients and their own lives. A clear focus on strengths, with practical ways of 'doing' respect and client-directed practice can bring about huge shifts for the client and the worker.
Through the training many organisations have totally restructured to build a strengths philosophy into their work. Others have established new agencies or programs on the strengths philosophy or have made changes to the way they deliver services. Some now regularly send their staff to strengths-based training and others provide their own training using our resources. For example The James Family (Presbyterian Support Northern, based in Auckland) and Kyabra and Indigo House in Brisbane, have undertaken training in strengths-based practice, supervision and training of trainers in strengths-based practice. They now train their own staff and others in their communities. Another important outcome is that there is now, in Australia and New Zealand, a substantial network built around the strengths approach.
THE STRENGTHS APPROACH
The Strengths Approach is a two or three day package that explores the principles, processes & skills of the strength approach which underpins St Luke's practice philosophy. It explores conditions for change and ways to remove constraints to change. it defines and explores client-directed, solution-focused practice and narrative ideas. it enables reflection on and exploration of the implications of the strengths approach for service delivery, the use of practice tools, case-planning, recording and other areas as negotiated.
In two days we cover the basics and for many agencies this is a sound beginning. With three days we are better able to consolidate the ideas within the context of particular settings.
Pre-requisites: None
STRENGTHS-BASED SUPERVISION AND PROGRAM COORDINATION
One of the central challenges of strengths-based work is how to be consistent with the principles of empowerment, self-determination and the strengths approach in our organisations.
This two or three day workshop explores the implications of strengths-based principles, processes and skills for supervision and service coordination. It emphasises transparency and shared responsibility for the oversight service delivery and practice. It provides frameworks for implementing the strengths approach to service coordination and supervision. It looks at both one-to-one and group supervision.
Pre-requisites: Experience in strengths-based practice and a thorough understanding of solution-focused practice.
Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) Training
TCI is a crisis prevention and management system. The TCI model has been developed by the Residential Child Care Project, Cornell University, New York.
Competencies taught in training are: to be able to pro-actively prevent and/or de-escalate a potential crisis situation with a child or young person in Out of Home Care, to be able to safely and therapeutically manage a crisis situation and to be able to process crises with children and young people to help improve their coping skills, to ultimately learn from crisis situations and teach new/better coping strategies.
Goals of TCI are: preventing crises, de-escalating potential crises, reducing injury to young people and staff, reducing the use of high risk interventions, increasing young people’s use of adaptive coping skills, developing a learning circle within the organization, increasing staff confidence in dealing with crises and potential crises.
Training focuses on active participant involvement, using a lot of small group work, discussion, problem solving and role play, to facilitate practical learning using the TCI framework and tools. The training program is designed for 4 days including physical intervention or there is a 3 day option, without the physical intervention component.
For further information please contact Marian Ruyter or Donna Fadersen at St. Luke’s Anglicare, ph (03) 54401100, email d.fadersen@stlukes.org.au or m.ruyter@stlukes.org.au
© Copyright 2007 St Lukes Anglicare