It probably goes without saying that numerous skills need to be practiced in order to equip those who are attending courses with the competences necessary to assist people to cope with unexpected situations, ease their distress in life, and ultimately change the lives of people who have suffered deep trauma for the better.
In addition, emotional awareness will be greatly enhanced by being skillful.
The skills that need to be learned are summarised in the paragraphs below. Once again, this is not an exhaustive list – or the final word – but I believe that they are of some importance.
Listening is a crucial element of support. The essentials of listening skills need to be practiced in a trusting and yet challenging environment. The challenge will come from the warmth of the relationships in the training group. Closely related to listening are relationship skills themselves, i.e. making genuine relationships and enhancing them, recognising the value of dialogue in relationship, and the importance of presence, attunement [1] and congruence.
In addition to congruence, the development of empathy is crucial. (In this, it is always helpful to know the difference between empathy and sympathy). The curiosity that comes from genuine interest and is not intrusive helps us understand people’s circumstances and walk in their shoes a little.
Any group of students can be considered to be a microcosm of family life in general in that people will inevitably adopt different roles. A wealth of learning can come from identification of our roles, how and why the roles are maintained – and perhaps, challenged, and how we resist change both individually and as a system.
A team is a system, so teamwork skills, how to work as a team, morale, trying to rid ourselves of the tyranny of comparison and being congruent in our relationships will be important. (In that respect, our goal is that our team will be a model of pro-social attributes).
One of the most important skills in working with individuals in the Focus Group is advocacy. This is because many people who have the characteristics as described may not be well practiced in the skill of having their voice heard. As I say a number of times, there are many staff members in statutory organisations who are committed, enthusiastic, idealistic and compassionate, that are partners in our work.
When we build relationships with agencies remember that the relationships are always with people in the agencies. An important part of advocacy is recognition of other organisations’ limitations and our acceptance of same.
In the Chapter on media I described at some length its effect on people in distress due to imprisonment and involvement in crime. I believe that we can learn skills in dealing with the media. Our aim is to use their considerable power and, indeed, concern – because there are many concerned and sincere media people – to make the lives of the Focus Group better. Mostly, media people are not that interested in positivity and good news – but some are!
We also need to practice outreach skills. Firstly, why bother reaching out at all? What are our motives? Well – I believe anyway – reaching out to people in distress is a central part of our work; otherwise we will not be effective. When we reach out to vulnerable people we always need to be ready to deal with the unexpected – and the work will always include an above-average dollop of chaos.
There are, of course, special considerations of health and safety also – and all need to be included.
Finally, there are skills of challenging the organisation that are helpful for all of us workers. This is always a difficult process because we don’t want to bite the hand that feeds us so to speak. We mentioned in a previous post that a community leader needs to stick to the mission and vision but staff also have a role in this.
[1]. Attunement is tuning in to what another is really saying – and feeling. The irrelevant bits are tuned out – for the present anyway. Like, for example, tuning a radio into the correct station with no clutter or what is known as white noise.