Resilience in Action (July 2011)
Demonstrating how getting away in a positive group impacts on young peoples confidence to change schools
See Stepping Stones Film
As a joint venture with HAWKS, this project provided the opportunity for a group of children to feel better through immersion in the natural environment and engaging in resilience-building activities. The aim was also to promote a smooth transition from primary to secondary education, increased confidence and enjoyment of school.
This was a longer term programme and followed our ‘Wildly Different’ formula which enables a planned progression to take place:
Step 1 -- A Wild Day In (the city in a green space) allows the children and workers to all get to know each other and get a taste for and plan activities to come
Step 2 -- A Wild Weekend Away (in ‘deeper country’) is a chance to get away from it all, build up new skills, supportive relationships, self-esteem, confidence and resilience.
Step 3 -- A Wild Day Out (in the countryside close to the city) brings everyone back together to reflect on what they have learnt and experienced and think about how that can be applied into the future (in this case, coping with changing schools)
This example of this way of working was considered so effective that the organizations involved are working to repeat it this year. A photofilm was made of the 3-stage project and shown to children, workers and parents in Knowle West a week before the new term began. The film illustrates the feelings of both the children and the workers around working in this new, enjoyable and effective way and its public showing proved to be one of the most moving aspects of the project.
