Building Bridges, an Erasmus+ funded training course, saw the coming together of 40 keen youth workers, social workers, care workers and counsellors, all ready to learn and share knowledge, with the ultimate aim of improving the quality of the relationships with the young people they work with.
For another year, British psychologists Mr Colin Newton and Mr Derek Wilson from Inclusive Solutions, delivered this training course to a very high standard. Their unique method of engaging the participants and helping them draw on their personal experiences was once again a success. All participants were highly engaged and eager to discuss and absorb the learning.
The topic chosen this year was UNDERSTANDING ATTACHMENT. Attachment theory is a complex theory; however it is crucial that those working with young people with a problematic background understand how the attachment patterns developed as babies with their primary care givers has an impact on all the relationships they form in life. The theory was broken down and tackled in a manner which was more easily understood. Participants were guided to move away from asking ‘what’s wrong with the person’ to ‘what happened to the person’ in order to be able to address behaviour with responses that have the safety and dignity of the young person at the forefront.
The training course was an immense success and was described as ‘the best training course I’ve ever attended’ by one of the participants. The whole experience also resulted in discussions for future partnerships between the different organisations.
Empowering Youth in Care which works through the Conservatorio Vincenzo Bugeja Homes organised this training course. Our partners for this course were Donum Animus from Latvia, Associatia Copii in Sanul Familiei from Romania, Panevezys ‘Vyturys’ Progymnasium from Lithuania and Municipality of Altea in Spain.
