Working with a Community in Need
The Warnborough Foundation has been pleased to work with the Milmead Children’s Centre Partnership (MCCP) in Thanet to run our flagship All About You (AAY) programme. Our new cohort of aspirant participants are young parents who make use of the MCCP nursery services.
As is usual, we ran several pre-course sessions which covered an initial assessment, introduction, induction and recruitment. The main reason is to ensure the participants are a right fit for the programme, which is a self-development and ‘employment themed’ course. In total, we began with 6 learners who are involved in MCCP’s outreach services. Two were unable to continue with the programme part way through. All sessions were held at the MCCP’s premises so that location is familiar to learners, and they are around people they know and trust to help them feel safe.
Participant Profile
AAY participants were young mothers and fathers (18++) living in the Millmead area with complex needs including anxiety, low self-esteem and negative belief systems. Additionally, each learner has their own unique learning style and starting point in key development areas including low motivation, self-awareness and confidence.
All learners require support with learning to learn. Key skills development required them to complete their course to full potential , including increased self-awareness, information processing and remembering, problem solving and decision-making and being more able to communicate ‘who they are’ with more confidence to self and to others.
The Learning Process
AAY participants gain knowledge through a series of specific, interactive and facilitated themed tutorials that include an introduction to the theme, team and individual tasks individual reflective learning activities and one team presentation to a ‘selected’ audience.
Tutorial Themes include teams and teamwork, learning to learn, goal discovery, career discovery, projects, CV writing, delivering more confident presentations and action planning. In terms of support, each learner had access to personal time with the course ‘tutor’ in session. MCCP staff continued with this support between sessions and learners had access to the course ‘tutor’ throughout the course.
Outcomes
Each learner received a Certificate of Achievement, produced a CV using a computer and generated 3 progression steps to discuss with the MCCPL Lead after completing the AAY course. Evaluation activities were carried out throughout course and a follow-up evaluation with learners and MCCP as the referral and progression partner 3 months following course completion measured the impact.
We are incredibly proud of our participants and would like to thank the staff at MCCP for being so helpful and amenable to everything. Of course, the programme is run in partnership with Sheila Caulfield.
