RESOURCES
Bringing life to small groups
- Sophia
Mwangi heads off on one of Care for the Family’s new Real Life
Training weekends ...
Do you
feel that God is calling you to strengthen family life in your community?
If the answer is yes, then a two day training course entitled Bringing
Life to Small Groups could be the answer. I went to find out.
The course has been devised by Care for the Family’s Real Life
Training (RLT) department. Its aim is to enable individuals to set
up and run RLT courses in their churches and wider community.
On arrival, I was met at reception by a Care for the Family representative
who registered me in. I was then given a smart bag, packed with resources
needed for a RLT facilitator - a fact file, Sixty Minute Marriage
video, audio cassette, book, the Parentalk video and Parentalk
group leaders’ book.
What struck me as I sat down for the first session was the extremely
high standard of the event. We all sat at small tables each laden
with a bowl of boiled sweets and glasses for water and juice. Was
such attention to detail deliberate? Paula Pridham, Care for the Family's
RLT Training Manager and our co-trainer for the weekend, explained
that it certainly was. They want the facilitators to go into the community
and model what they had seen at the course.
She believes strongly that it’s all about valuing people as people.
"Even if you’re running a course in a community centre that’s
not very nice, it’s the finishing touches that are important,"
she explains. Many people I spoke to were not expecting such a high
standard for a Christian event and were pleasantly impressed.
I was also struck by the diversity of ‘trainee facilitators’
on the course. There were husbands and wives running marriage preparation
courses, groups of friends responsible for parent and toddler groups,
a pastor involved in community development, two ladies reaching out
to African families in Leeds. The list was endless.
They came from all over the UK, black, white, young and old. This
course is open to anyone with a passion for families and marriages
in their communities.
Paul Aplin and his wife Mary run marriage preparation classes at their
church in Lichfield: "We’ve come on this course to see what
the material is like as a lot of the resources we have seem quite
dated. Although we do a pre-marriage course, we should also do an
after-marriage course and invite the couples to come back," he
says. Paul and Mary intend to try the RLT course on a house group
first: "If we get positive feedback then we’ll continue
and run the course.”
Day One was divided into four sessions. Session One was an introduction
to the RLT material, a discussion on the people we were trying to
meet and what difficulties we might face.
There are two courses, The Sixty Minute Marriage and Parentalk,
each consisting of five two-hour sessions, aimed to run over a period
of five weeks each. Dave Carlos, Care for the Family’s Directors
Team leader and co-trainer for the weekend, and Paula explained that
the RLT course can be run either as a church-based activity or a community-based
activity, led by a facilitator and not necessarily church-led. It
could take place in a surgery, school, health-centre, even a fire
station!
Anyone who has been on the weekend course can run the Parentalk
Sixty Minute Marriage courses if they want to. However, to run
the courses under the ‘brand’ then they must register with
Care for the Family to become a licensed facilitator.
The other sessions looked at reaching your community, publicity and
getting people to turn up. We looked in depth at the two courses and
finally the role of a facilitator and working with small groups. By
the end of Day One, friendships were forming and addresses exchanging.
Precious and Keone live in Leeds. They run the Leeds African Women’s
Group which promotes the welfare of African families. They found the
weekend extremely useful. "I’ll use the skills I’ve
learned here to help the parents and the youth we are working with,"
says Precious.
They are aware, however, that some of the RLT will not be culturally
applicable to the community they serve: "We’re working with
African parents raising children in a Western culture," says
Keone. "It’s a cultural shock for them. That’s where
we will share our own stories with them. Those of us who have been
here longer," she explains.
The RLT team is aware of this: "We can provide a course that
is generally applicable," says Dave Carlos, "but we rely
on the skill and ability of the local facilitator to culturalize it.”
Day Two was spent in small groups learning facilitation skills, such
as using icebreakers, learning how to listen and leading discussions.
From the laughter and noise emanating from each group, we clearly
enjoyed ourselves. My group was banished to another room for making
too much noise!
This course is a must if you’re serious about reaching your community.
Thelma Higgins and Bridget Grant found it invaluable: "It is
comforting to know there is a support system to fall back on and that
we're not alone," says Thelma.
For further information and bookings call Care for the Family on (029)
2081 0800 or visit www.care-for-the-family.org.uk
which will carry dates
and venues as they become available.
- Sophia Mwangi is a freelance writer based in Luton, and is married with three young children
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