WS7a_Empowering the ageing-out child towards autonomous decisions

Implementation Steps

Practical exercise:  Explains to the CLs that a consultant’s job is to provide expert advice to their “clients”. For this exercise, all the participants are going to act as a highly specialized and competent consulting team. Several problems are brought together to the group. In this exercise, everyone will be in the “consultant team” working in collaboration with the  rest of the team.

Identifying Problems and Challenges

Explain the activity:

Get the participants to sit around a table. Give them some time to reflect upon a problem or personal challenge they would like to overcome in their future, but are unsure how, or that they find too difficult, and ask them to write it down and describe it in two or three lines maximum.

Jump into the Consultant’s Shoes

When they’re finished with the description of the problem, instruct them to pass their papers to their left. Allow then one or two minutes to read the problem now in front of them and write a piece of advice or a potential solution beneath it.

After this, pass the papers to the left again and repeat the process. Keep going until participants have their original piece of paper back.

Remember!!!

Encourage the participants’ ability to solve problems quickly and creatively which can make a significant difference to the success of the community connection.

Evaluating the expertise

Talk to your group about the advice they received from their colleagues. Consider asking these questions:

  • How do you feel about being called upon to give advice?
  • Were you able to offer something constructive to your teammates?
  • How do you feel about asking for teammates’ help?
  • Were you surprised at the amount and quality of the advice you received?

Observations:

Some of your participants might not have been able to think of a piece of advice, or a possible solution. If they get stuck, ask them to write down a few words of encouragement or support instead.