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| Kate Anderson by Kate Anderson, Principal Community, Learning Worker, Torry | |
| ‘Torry The Way Forward’ was the title given to a weekend event for community activists held at Douneside House, Tarland. It was facilitated and supported by Community Learning and Development as part of their ongoing work in Community Engagement and Community Capacity Building. This particular phase of the work started in March 2005 when the Torry Adult Learning Co-ordinator and Community Learning staff organised an ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ event in Tullos Community Centre. This approach brought local people together to think about the development of their community from the standpoint of what was already there and what they liked about it – the physical environment but also the strengths and skills within the community. From this event, over the next 12 months Torry Matters Action Group formed, a local forum who prioritised 5 main areas requiring change in Torry. The First Torry Matters Report in 2006 describes the process that was gone through to identify their 5 main priority issues The development of one of the priority actions is further described in Case Study 16 (Torry Health Action Team). Over the past 3 years, Torry Matters has been an open forum with monthly meetings (this recently changed to fortnightly alternating between day and evening meetings). The mailing list for Torry Matters is around eighty with regular attendance at meetings of between 15 and 20+ local people. Using the Community Voices fund, the group has been supported by Community Learning and Development. Initially this included Community Learning workers chairing and minuting meetings but recently the chairing role has been assumed by local people on a rotating basis. There have been several training and study events prior to the Douneside event, a visit to Ardler and Raploch organised by Grampian Housing Association, a study visit to Edinburgh which included a tour of the Scottish Parliament, a visit to a Drugs project in Glasgow and a residential training weekend at Cruden Bay focussed on how to use the National Standards for Community Engagement Individual evaluations of these events are available. One of the live issues concerning the group was how best to organise their structure within a context of a lot of change and a number of different agendas which would have an impact on community organisations in the future. Some people felt that the open structure of Torry Matters Action Group was a problem in progressing issues and that there was a risk that a structure might be imposed on the area by officers from the public authorities. After investigating alternative structures including a Development Trust, the wider group made a decision that they were happy with the open structure of Torry Matters Action Group but wanted to work towards local people taking a bigger role in terms of agenda setting, minute taking, letter writing and chairing of meetings. As a result, Torry Matters Action Group have continued to meet on an even more regular basis, alternating meetings between day-time and evenings so that more people can participate. A small group of local people independently investigated Development Trusts and felt this was a good way forward for them. They have set up a separate steering group to investigate the way forward as a Trust while remaining actively involved in Torry Matters Action Group. Back to the weekend ……it was decided that the first day would focus on team building and working together and the second day would look at the way forward in terms of Torry priority issues. Along with staff, two members of Torry Matters Action Group agreed to be part of the planning group for the weekend, Sharlene and Simon. After a couple of meetings to look at the plan for the weekend in relation to what the group wanted to achieve, Sharlene and Simon were clear that they wanted a relaxed informal atmosphere and a programme that took the group forward and to try to avoid going over old arguments. The 20 participants were divided into 3 groups, making sure that family members and close friends were split up. Sharlene suggested an exercise for an ice breaker that she had seen used previously and felt that it had worked well. A variety of practical exercises and games were used during the weekend. All the team building exercises used on the first day apart from The Emotional Intelligence Quiz were found on the website at www.businessballs.com. They are described below and responses from participants are highlighted.
The programme for realDay 1 - Session 1 - Ice Breaker Write on a post it something you think no-one else in the group knows about you. All the notes are folded and put in middle of room. Someone picks one and reads it out and everyone has to guess who it is, the person who guesses correctly picks the next one and so on …. This worked well even though there were family members in the group. Comments – “Surprised at some of the things people revealed about themselves’ “Very informative and a good laugh. Good start to the weekend.” Session 2 - Jigsaw The jigsaw puzzle was split in to three and a bag was given to each of the 3 groups. They were then given half an hour to start their puzzle and told they would be able to continue it through out the day. It did not take the groups long to realise that they did not have a whole puzzle, it did however take them some time to decide that they needed to join together to complete the task. Comments – ‘It made us aware that we must work together to complete the task’ ‘Liked the principal/idea but dislike jigsaws.’ Note: If you had plenty of time you would be better to make a jigsaw as this exercise works best if each part makes a portion in its own right (we improvised with just an ordinary jigsaw puzzle). Session 3 - Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Purpose – To measure how easily you pick up on other people’s feelings and how strongly you are affected by other people’s feelings. This was a questionnaire of 60 questions that people had to fill in about themselves. The different responses were then scored on how well you pick up on other people’s feelings and how strongly you are affected by other people’s feelings. It led to discussion about the different roles in meetings, the role of the chairperson, the need for minutes and agendas, what people do/don’t find offensive. Comments – ‘Found this helpful towards building a good team. Made aware of people’s good points.’ ‘Very interesting especially the scores. I of course had the most empathy and highest score!’ Note: The scoring of this exercise was quite confusing and if we used it again we would try to simplify the scoring. Session 4 - Read all about it Purpose- Discuss a chosen topic and reflect on how other members of the group felt about the topic. A number of newspaper articles about current issues at that time were photocopied ‘Donald Trump Golf Course proposal’, ‘Prescription Charges’ ‘Young People’s Drinking Culture’. The three groups were given copies of the newspaper articles and their first task was to choose which topic they wanted to discuss as a group. The second task was that at the end of the discussion each person in the group had to report back on what they thought other people’s opinions were. This was an interesting exercise. The outcome would have been different if we had followed the script to the letter and provided instructions in two parts with the second task being given after they had discussed the topic. As it was, the way it was introduced meant that people seemed to listen more closely to what other people in the group were saying and by the end of it some sort of consensus had been reached. This was not the object of the exercise but still a product of better listening. Although one group started off by discussing a different topic. All three groups ended up discussing the same topic ‘Abolishing Prescription Charges’. Comments - ‘Provoked good discussion and views.’ ‘We all worked well together.’ Session 5 - Brussel Sprout Relaunch Purpose – To work together as a team to market a product. This was a fun seasonal exercise but people really got into it and found all sort of different ways both visually and vocally to present their campaign. Comment – ‘Again lots of fun. We all worked well together and injected some humour into it’ ‘Gave whole team a chance to make an unsellable product sellable.’ Session 6 - Comparisons of areas, revisit issues, what’s missing and are current priorities still relevant Purpose – To put Sunday’s discussion into the context of what had previously been previously prioritised both in Torry and citywide. We revisited the first Torry Matters report from 2006 where 5 priority actions had been identified. Anne presented statistical information giving some comparison of Aberdeen neighbourhoods. Copies of all the information were supplied to each small group and the groups were then asked to decide what their top 5 priorities were now. A range of issues were identified. These were left for further discussion on the next day. Comments - ‘Quite an eye opener - lots of passion’ ‘Felt that problems still existed’ Session 7 - Bingo Purpose – Fun – team building and co-operation. Comments - ‘Was o.k. but think I was getting tired by this point and found it difficult to engage my brain.’ ‘Good fun.’ Day 2 - Session 1 - Brain Gym Purpose – Warm up - to increase blood flow to the brain Exercises can be done sitting down. Although there was a hand out sheet, one of the participants who works as Pupil Support Assistant demonstrated exercises that they use in the school situation. Comments – ‘Really enjoyed this’ ‘Good start to the day’ Session 2 - Agree 4/5 priorities in group Purpose – following on from session on Saturday, this was the opportunity to discuss priorities in the large group and come to some sort of consensus about the most important issues to take forward over the next 3 years. Five priorities were agreed on:
Session 3 - Brick in the Wall A table was given to each of the five priorities. People were initially asked to choose a priority they wanted to start work on but they were then allowed to move between priorities during the session. For each priority they were asked to do the following:
In addition to making a detailed breakdown of the issues and identifying obstacles that needed to be overcome, the group developed timelines for action. Comments - ‘Great to provide ourselves with a vision and an aim for the future- something to focus on’ ‘Interesting, some good points’ Session 4 - Doric Quiz Purpose – Something fun to finish off with. Workers had started the weekend's work off with the large group and were on hand throughout with information or explanation of the activities if required. All of the discussion group activities were facilitated by Torry Matters group members. The weekend provided Torry Matters Action group with a detailed action list to pursue through local neighbourhood planning structures over the following weeks and months. They had also made progress in working together as a group and in understanding different points of view. The weekend ended with a Q & A session where the participants were updated or were able to ask questions that had arisen for them during the weekend. The first and unanimous question was When are we coming back ? Torry Matters |
Torry Matters
Torry Matters
Torry Matters
Torry Matters
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Last Modified : 12/03/2009