and reach thousands of daily visitors
13 MARCH 2009
NO 1412
Community meetings
The opportunity-led approach is a way of building upon events and comments which arise in everyday life and looking for opportunities for communication. On the other hand, it is also possible to plan for communication in a much fuller and more predictable way — by guaranteeing to the young people that they will have the regular opportunity to come together as a group to share their thoughts, feelings and concerns, and to be listened to and responded to by the staff. This opportunity can be provided through what are known variously as group meetings, young people's meetings, or 'community meetings'. There are various approaches to this mode of working and it will be important to adopt a model which is workable in the particular setting. What is usually involved is a regular time when all of the young people and the staff come together in a planned way to talk. Such meetings may be held on a fortnightly, weekly, or even in some places on a daily basis. The main aim will be for the voice of the young people to be heard, individually and sometimes collectively, and heard by each other as well as by the staff and perhaps others.
Getting such a system established can feel daunting for staff whether or not they are experienced in groupwork. A proposal to set up such a system may not always be received enthusiastically as some young people and some staff may be concerned about what may emerge, about whether what is said will actually be heard and taken seriously by others and whether any action will result. My own experience (Ward 1995) in establishing regular community meetings in a children's home was that it was very difficult at first, for a number of reasons. People (both staff and children) were initially anxious at the prospect of sitting together in one room simply to talk to each other: some people find talking in a large group quite intimidating at first, and others find the idea of talking to anyone about their own thoughts and feelings fairly threatening. However, my experience was that, by starting with a simple format and developing slowly, it was eventually possible to achieve a great deal through these meetings. Children and staff gradually found the confidence both to express their own views and tolerate listening to others' views, which might be in conflict with their own. The message to those thinking of establishing such meetings in a residential setting can be summarised as follows: start small; be ready to adapt your methods according to need; be reliable and consistent and finally, work as a team and be sure of your support systems.
ADRIAN WARD
Ward, Adrian. (1998). A model for practice: The therapeutic community. In Ward, A. and McMahon, L. (Eds.). Intuition is Not Enough: Matching learning with practice in therapeutic child care. London and New York. Routledge. pp. 70-71.
REFERENCE
Ward, A. (1995). Establishing community meetings in a
children's home. Groupwork, 15, 1. pp. 4-23.
