Youth2Youth E-Book

Irene Bush

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 249

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

terre des hommes schweiz has elaborated the innovative capacity building program Youth2Youth based on the Solution Focused Approach (SFA) together with the child psychiatrist Dr. Therese Steiner in Southern Africa, Central and South America. This program helps youth gain self-esteem and experience self-efficacy. The SF mindset and methodology enables youth to define personal goals and reach them step by step by using their already existing strengths. Many of these young people are like coated stones: they carry a treasure inside, they are not aware of, because violence, neglect, poverty and marginalization makes it impossible for them to recognize their competences and abilities. This best practice reader describes the implementation of the program and participants that have attended the program tell us abouth its impact on their life. It also presents a toolkit for SFA-facilitators with exercises and ideas that are helpful to make students understand the principles of SFA. Furthermore it includes a genuine collection of creative methods on how to introduce SF mindset and methodology through different channels.

Leseprobe

Irene Bush

art therapist and expert for Psychosocial Support of terre des hommes schweiz has initiated the Youth2-Youth Project within the organization and coordinates the Regional Youth2Youth Program in Southern Africa, Central and South America. She describes the close cooperation with Therese Steiner as a great opportunity for personal and professional growth.

Therese Steiner

MD, childpsychiatrist, psychotherapy for children and adolescents, Expert Trainer of SF work with children and adolescents and author has supported terre des hommes schweiz to introduce SFA in the cooperation with partner organizations in Southern Africa, Central and South America and facilitated the process of the Youth2Youth Program.

terre des hommes schweiz

(tdhs) is a Swiss non-political and non-denominational non-governmental organization that has been committed to a just world for more than 50 years. tdhs works together with local partner organizations and supports better living conditions for children, young people and communities across ten countries in Africa and Latin America. In Switzerland, tdhs strives to increase awareness of global interconnections. tdhs is a member of the International Terre des Hommes Federation.

Contents

Part 1: Lessons learned in the Youth2Youth Program

Introduction

SFA in a nutshell

The Youth2Youth Program Sub-Saharan Africa

Pilot Course

Voices from Participants of the Pilot Course

Replication Course

Voices from Participants of the Replication Course

The Training-of-Trainers Course

Voices from Participants of the Trainers Course

Practitioner Trainings facilitated by local SFA Trainers

Supporting mechanisms of the Youth2Youth Program

The Youth2Youth Program Central America

The Youth2Youth Program South America

Implementing SFA in the Youth2Youth Program

Implementing SFA in the field of development cooperation

Part 2: Toolkit for facilitating SFA

Introduction

Scaling

Exception

Goal

Reframing

Compliment

Miracle question MQ

Not knowing position

Conversational skills

Feedback

Mindset

Skills for facilitating

Time managing for introducing the SF approach

Part 3: Creative Methods and SFA

Using creative methods to introduce the Solution Focused Approach

Ideas and instructions for creative exercises

Ideas and instructions to work with small booklets

Ideas and instructions to work with creative processes

Introduction

This reader describes an adventurous journey which started in 2007, when terre des hommes schweiz decided to introduce a regional capacity building program for youth featuring the Solution Focused Approach (SFA) in Sub-Saharan Africa until 2016, with three SF capacity building programs for youth established in Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and South America.

This process, which involves youth and partner organizations in the South, terre des hommes schweiz (tdhs) and Therese Steiner, expert trainer for the Solution Focused Approach developed a genuine Youth2-Youth Program, tailored to fit youth with great potential within them and seemingly little perspective in the surrounding they live in.

SFA has become a parameter for project work with youth, for the organization itself and for the relationship with partner organizations. As far as we know, it was the first time that SFA was broadly introduced to non-professionals in the field of development cooperation.

This alone makes it worthwhile to have a closer look at what was done and how this was done, what proved to be useful and what was not. The Youth2Youth Program will be described and analyzed from the different perspectives. Therese Steiner looks at it from a SFA expert trainer’s perspective and Irene Bush from the perspective of program coordinator of terre des hommes schweiz and last but not least the participants will testify to the impact of the SFA trainings on their lives.

The toolkit for facilitating SFA in the second part of this best practice reader addresses people who have a good knowledge of the SF mindset and methodology and provides different exercises that are helpful to make students understand the principals of SFA. In the third part you’ll find specific exercises and instructions for creative processes to enhance the understanding of the SF mindset through different channels, which were developed for the Youth2Youth Program, as well as some reactions and feedback from participants who went through these processes.

The experience we share will be worthwhile to read for anyone interested in SFA, in participatory work and capacity building with youth and development cooperation. Even experienced professionals might find new aspects to consider for their own work.

If you start your reading with the testimonies of participants, it will make you wonder what happened in the course of the Youth2Youth Program for them to realize such substantial changes in their lives!

Gabriela Wichser Ladner

Head Programmes, Member of Management Team terre des hommes schweiz

Part 1: Lessons learned in the Youth2Youth Program

SFA in a nutshellTherese Steiner

In this chapter Therese Steiner introduces the Solution Focused Approach in a concentrated form to give an idea of the mindset and the most important tools being used.

The solution focused approach (SFA) was developed as therapy model by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg in Milwaukee (USA) in the early 1980’s. It is based on the following assumptions:

Every human being has strengths and resources

Change is inevitable, nothing stays always the same

If something works do more of it, if it doesn’t work do something else

Small steps can lead to big changes

The solution is not necessarily directly related to the problem

No problem happens all the time. There are always exceptions that can be used

The future is created and negotiable

The language used for developing solutions is different than the language used to describe the problem

The solution focused approach is a way of thinking, it is a certain mind set. This mind set is characterized by:

The respect for the uniqueness of the human being

The acknowledgment and validation of the person‘s strengths and competences

The readiness to listen and take seriously what a person says

The interest in the person’s preferred future and goals

SFA is future oriented

The main topic when working with people is to get a description of the wished future. There is no problem assessment. However people are used to talking about their problems and problem talk happens over and over again. In SF we listen to it without asking questions that are related to the problem. As soon as possible we ask the people what they would like to see happen in their life instead of the problematic situation. Very often a person can come up with one or two ideas and then slips back to the description of the problem. This is normal and it means we have to go backwards to the past and listen to the client’s problems and then again focus on the future by asking specific questions. A person who works solution focused can be recognized by the questions they ask and how they show their curiosity in the client’s life.

SFA works cooperatively, no advice is given

In this approach the dialogue partners have different competences. The person who is seeking support is the expert of their life. That means they know best what will be helpful for them to make the necessary change.

The expertise of the person giving support is to help the dialogue partner create hope, formulate well-formed goals and realize their own competences. This is done through useful questions and the specific interest for all that is already working in the dialogue partner’s life.

To conceptualize the dialogue process in this way has the consequence that there is no hierarchy between the dialogue partners and the partner giving support does not give advice as it is impossible to know what is helpful for the other person.

What can be done is to offer suggestions in a tentative language. This means in a form that the partner can reject or if it is acceptable, agree with the offered idea.

EXAMPLE: Listening to you I was wondering whether it could make a difference in your conflict if you started to be punctual.

Listening to you it crossed my mind, whether it could be a possibility to go around to her house and apologize for what has happened.

SFA focus on the doing level

A person’s action influences the thinking as well as the emotions. It is impossible to do something without these two parameters. Most of the time the easiest thing to change is the action. This is usually easier than changing the thinking and the emotions.

We can always ask the people to pretend:

Pretend that they are courageous, pretend that they know how to master a situation, pretend they are a little bit happier and so on. The fact is that already pretending helps to change the thinking and the emotions.

The SF conviction that it is helpful to focus on the doing level shows for instance in the ways we deal with people’s wish for better feelings.

EXAMPLE: Suppose you will be happier, what will you be doing that you are not able to do at the moment.

Suppose you will feel more competent about yourself how will that influence your actions? What will you be doing then?

SFA focus on meaningful, positive changes

In order to be helpful to a person, SFA focuses on positive changes. Very often people in difficult situations do not notice when things go slightly better. As they find themselves still in challenging circumstances, no attention is paid to small differences. It is our duty to elicit and amplify the smallest change as tiny it might be by exploring in detail how this difference was constructed and could happen. The careful awareness of progress creates hope and promotes further change.

Language creates reality

The SFA is based on the philosophy of Wittgenstein. Steve de Shazer wrote a book with the title: ‘Words Were Originally Magic’. In this book he explains how words create reality.

EXAMPLE: There is a difference between the statements: ‘This person is aggressive’ and ‘this person behaves aggressively.’The first statement transports the idea that aggression is a characteristic of this person and therefore is always present and true, similar to the characteristic to be a male.

The second statement however transports the idea of a behavior and behaviors normally vary according to circumstances.

There is a difference between the statement ‘She didn’t join the group because she was sad” and the statement ‘She didn’t join the group and was sad”. The first statement conveys the idea that not joining the group has something to do with the person’s sad feelings. The second statement describes just two phenomena without creating a causal connection. In the second statement it stays open whether joining the group and feeling sad has something to dowith one another. In order to find out we have to ask the person.

When working in a SF way we have to be aware of the language we use and keep in mind that the language that is required for solution development is different from the language used to describe the problem.

An expert in a SF conversation is interested in:

What has to be achieved, what is the wish and how does a person want to achieve this goal? (Goal, dynamic of the situation)

What can the person do? (Resources)

What is the first step? (Doing)

There are specific communication skills that help support the solution building process:

1. “Not knowing” position

It is helpful to explore the other person’s perception. That means with an open mind and not judgmental ears one should listen to the description of the actual situation and the wished changes.

Helpful questions:

You must have a good reason:

EXAMPLE: You must have a good reason not to show up, not to make what you were told, not to listen to your boss, not to tell the truth....

How is this problem for you?

EXAMPLE: How is this problem for you not to have succeeded?

That you do not get the same good results as your fellows? That you are not estimated by the youth? That youth is not listening to you?

How is this helpful?

EXAMPLES: How is it helpful for you not to tell the truth?

How is it helpful to run away?

To want to commit suicide?

What difference does it make?

EXAMPLES: What difference does it make when you behave like that?

When you are aggressive? When you shout? What about shouting is important? When you take drugs? The answers to these sorts of questions give you an idea of the very individual perceptions and value system of the person you are working with.

2. Compliments

Compliments empower the people we are working with. They are helpful to create hope because they help people realize that they have already competences to do helpful things. Compliments can activate a person and therefore can have a tremendous impact.

There are mainly two sorts of compliments:

The direct compliment is a positive connotation or reaction by the helper in response to a person.

EXAMPLE: You seem to be an adolescent who cares a lot about the children.

It is impressive how devoted you are to support youth in solving the conflicts.

The indirect compliment is a question that implies something positive about a person and gives them the opportunity to explain and talk more about what they are doing well.

EXAMPLE: What do you think the children would say regarding how you are looking after them?

How did you learn to do it? How did you figure out staying calm would be helpful?

In the end it is not what we say that counts but what the other person hears!

Therefore, we have to make sure that people hear what we are saying. There are little things we can do to increase the chance that the compliment is heard. For example:

Delayed compliment:

You can tell a person that you observed something which really impressed you and that you will tell what it is at the end of the conversation.

Written compliment:

You write down an observation you made of something they did that impressed you and give it to the person at the end of the conversation, telling them the note should only be read at home.

3. Goal questions

Usually people are able to describe in detail the problematic situation however they have not yet figured out how they would like things to be instead. Most of the time it is a very surprising question when we ask what they would like to see happen instead of the problem.

The answers to the goal question give an idea of what the person would like to see happen.

EXAMPLES: How will you know things have improved?

How will you know the problem is gone?

How will others know things have changed?

What would you like to see happen instead of the problem?

What is your best hope?

It is important that we make a clear distinction between a problem and a restriction or limitation. Problems have solutions while restrictions or limitations can’t be changed. Restrictions are, for instance, physical handicaps like blindness, cognitive impairment, physical disability. Limitations are, for instance, governmental rules we have no influence on.

How to work with limitations and restrictions?

As there is no choice of how things should be, the goal of the person who has to deal with a restriction or limitation is to work with it as best as possible in the given situation.

The exploration must make clear what the person does when they are coping in a satisfying way.

EXAMPLE: Knowing that you are HIV positive, how will you take care of yourself as well as possible given this situation? What will you be doing?

There is the rule that you have to show up every week. Even if you see no point in this, how will you cope with this regulation and make sure you do what you have to do?

In order to create hope and keep going it is very important that human beings formulate well-formed goals. The tendency is often to have very vague goals, like for instance I want to be happy. This wish is normal however not useful to work with. The task of the person giving support is to find out many details about a specific situation this person considers to be a happy one.

EXAMPLE: Where and when do you think will you be able to feel happy? With whom? What will you be doing exactly? What else? How happy will this situation make you on a scale from 1-10? For how long? What tells you this is possible?

Signs for a well formed goal are:

The goal is small and specific

The goal is measurable

The goal is described in actionable terms (doing level)

The goal is reachable

The goal is time bound, can be reached in a certain time

In other terms well-formed goals are smart!

4. Miracle question

Generally people have perceived circumstances being strictly causally determined. For example: I can’t get an education because I am poor. This sort of thinking is most powerful and has a huge negative impact on the creativity of human beings. It is almost impossible to think out of the box because the person is caught in the causal chain. The miracle question is an invitation to go beyond this limitation. It animates the people to imagine changes in the frame of a miracle, a context where magical things can happen. In fact it is an invitation to construct a new personal reality. Amazingly enough many of the imagined activities, at least partially, can also be realized in everyday circumstances and therefore the person can use it to initiate change.

The miracle question as phrased by the Milwaukee team:

I have a strange perhaps unusual question, a question that takes some imagination, after we finished here, you go home, do your usual chores and then go to bed and to sleep and while you are sleeping a miracle happens and the problems that brought you here are solved just like that. But this happened while you were sleeping so you cannot know it has happened, once you wake up in the morning how will you discover that this miracle has happened to you?

Be aware that most of the people will answer I don’t know. Then just wait without saying anything. It is normal that people do not know right away and need some time to come up with ideas. After having gathered some ideas continue:

Without saying anything, how will other people know that this miracle has happened?

Elicit more information from an outsider perspective. Then work on elaborating the scale:

When was the most recent time (perhaps days, hours, minutes) that you can remember when things were sort of like this day after the miracle, just a tiny little bit like that?

On a scale from 1-10, with 10 standing for how things are the day after the miracle and 1 when you decided to talk to me, where between 1 and 10 are you at this point?

Where were things when the situation was sort of like the miracle has happened?

Where would other people say you are in this moment?

The miracle question is complex and challenging to answer. In many circumstances it has to be simplified. By some ways or another in your phrasing, the invitation should remain to think outside the box. With children one can use a magic wand or introduce a fairy.

With adults one can ask for the best hope and explore the day after the best hope has become true.

5. Exceptions

Given a certain problematic situation there are usually moments when the problem is less bothersome or is even gone. This described phenomenon is called an exception. Exploring exceptions are of great value because they give ideas on what can be helpful to ameliorate a situation.

Helpful questions to discover exceptions:

When were things a little bit better during the last weeks? What did you do then? Where was it? What would other people say was important in this situation? How come things were a little bit better?

Did it ever happen you did not (steal, drink alcohol, take drugs etc.) although you would have had the opportunity to do so? How did you do that? What do you need so you can do it again?

6. Scaling questions

Scaling questions allow for discussion and measure things that can’t be easily quantified: for instance courage, determination, hope, progress.

Scaling question:

EXAMPLES: On a scale from 1-10, when 10 stands for the wished goal has been reached and 1 is just the opposite, or when things were at their worst, where would you say things are at the moment? On a scale from 1 -10, when 10 stands for as determined as you can possibly be, where would you ssay, you see yourself on this scale.

Make sure you always define very carefully the ten.

Elaborating the scaling question:

If you ask for one step up, ask first for a description of the level above.

EXAMPLE: What will you be doing when you moved up one step, that you are not doing right now? What else will you be doing?

What will your best friend notice as a difference when you moved up one step?

This procedure helps the client to get ideas in actional terms on how to move up one step. It works a little bit like the miracle question. Beside that it also takes in consideration that many people improve their situation without support once they know what to do.

Most of the time it is hard work to imagine in details and on the doing level how the situation will look like when things got better. The detailed description of one step better enables the person to come up with ideas on how to get there.

7. Coping questions

Many people in difficult circumstances show amazing coping strategies and resilience. Usually they are not aware that the way they cope with challenging situations is a proof of courage, creativity, competences and skills. It is fruitful to explore how a person copes with a given situation. The answers highlight and make clear the efforts a person undertakes in order to prevent things from getting worse.

EXAMPLE: Tell me how do you manage to cook meals for your family every day although you have only little money to spend.

How do you manage to be in school on time although you have to fulfill many chores before going to school? How did you manage to stay away from drugs although you felt a big urge?

The Youth2Youth Program Sub-Saharan AfricaIrene Bush

This chapter recalls the working context and social situation in Sub Saharan Africa in the early 2000s and the conclusion made by terre des hommes schweiz (tdhs) to initiate and implement a capacity building program for youth. It further describes the process the organization went through until the Youth2Youth Program was set up in a solution focused way and was ready to be implemented.

Context of the Youth2Youth (Y2Y) Program

In addition to existing challenges like meager economic resources, poor social services and schooling, societies in Eastern and Southern Africa are overwhelmed by the consequences of the HIV/Aids pandemic. The traditional expanded family is overburdened and so many children and youth have to assume roles and duties exceeding their age. For instance, they care for their sick parents and siblings, or even generate income for the survival of the family. After the death of the parents some children and youth are placed with caretakers, others become the head of child households, taking over the responsibility of raising their younger siblings, still others lose all foothold and become street children. A large number of youth also engage themselves in community based organizations to assist other children and youth to cope with their challenging situation. It was and still is difficult for adults in communities to perceive the changing roles and duties children and youth have had to assume due to the HIV/Aids pandemic. Traditionally and even in contemporary times, in most African societies children and youth are supposed to obey orders and guidelines of the adults to become a valuable and accepted adult person. These societies don’t encourage children and youth to develop own ideas and usually don’t acknowledge or praise the child’s initiatives and activities.

By the end of the 1990’s the number of orphans increased alarmingly and emergency relief services to provide food and shelter was badly needed. At the same time the psychological implications of severe stress or even trauma had to be addressed for this generation of children and youth. The loss of parents is a strong stress factor, and as such can influence the development of the sociology of children in a negative way. Before losing their parents, most of the children and youth witnessed their illness, helplessness and incapability to care for the family. Through supporting measures, negative development can be reduced – or even turned into resilience. terre des hommes schweiz (tdhs) was amongst the first development organizations working in Eastern and Southern Africa to strive for psychosocial support for children and youth.

When psychosocial support programs for children and youth were put into practice on the ground, peer-to-peer interventions proved to be the most effective. Children and youth responded to the youth volunteers facilitating the workshops and meetings in youth clubs, because they came from the same background and faced similar challenges as they did in their lives. This generated great trust in these youth leaders and pushed them into the role of counselors and confidants for their hardships. Often enough the young facilitators weren’t sufficiently trained to protect themselves from being stressed or even re-traumatized. They needed tools for communication and in counseling to handle the complexity and severity of the situations they are confronted with, as well as regular debriefing for their own wellbeing. tdhs came to the conclusion that these youth leaders needed to be equipped with specific know-how and practical tools to be able to protect themselves and still be able to support their peers. Analyzing the situation, exchanging ideas with partner organizations and brainstorming rough outlines on how to support the youth leaders best work, tdhs concluded that they had to create an own capacity building program since there were no existing models. It needed to be culturally sensitive, respectful of the local customs and traditions and not imposing strange ideas or beliefs to the youth, which could turn them even more into outsiders in their communities. Participants should be able to learn and recognize their own efficacy (the perception of the ability to influence/change what is happening to them) and enhance their self-esteem and learn tools to support their peers without being re-traumatized.

Hopefully this future program would contribute in the long term to a new and more realistic perception of children and youth within their communities by recognizing the enormous efforts they made to handle the effects of the Aids Pandemic in their lives and in their communities.

In the search for an approach that would suit these ideas and requirements, a solution focused workshop facilitated by Therese Steiner caught my attraction with the mindset of this resource oriented approach with its innate belief in the strength and capability of people to solve their own problems. I was equally enthusiastic of the creative, lively and practical working style of Therese Steiner and spontaneously asked her if she would be prepared to discuss the possibility of developing a solution focused youth program in Sub-Saharan Africa.

tdhs shared and discussed the ideas of a regional capacity building program for youth volunteers with partner organizations in Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa and Zimbabwe. They responded with great interest and confirmed the need of empowering children and youth and strengthening youth projects. Most of them were very excited and more than ready to join in this process of finding new paths to support children and youth. Participation being one of the pillars in the work of tdhs doesn’t mean that all the decisions are made jointly. One has to be transparent and very open about the degree and areas of participation. It was clear that within this cooperative of partner organizations certain roles were set and with this, the power of decision. tdhs as initiator, coordinator, implementer and financer of the program is responsible for setting up the frame of the planned capacity building program and always has the final decision. The real participatory area, where partner organizations, youth and tdhs jointly decide involves the selection of the participants and the content of the curriculum. And on the other hand, the integration of the knowledge gained from the capacity building program into the work is purely determined by the partner organizations and participants themselves.

Be clear on defining the power of decision and the area of participation in the decision-finding process and/or decision-making. Especially in the field of development cooperation where the roles of donors and recipients, of service delivery and beneficiaries are set, it’s mandatory to communicate openly about power-structures.

The Curriculum Workshop

After all these preliminary discussions took place within tdhs, with partner organizations and Therese Steiner, a face-to-face consultation on the curriculum was convened in December 2007. tdhs invited 6 adult experts and 6 youth experts to a one week curriculum workshop in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. The youth experts were chosen by our partner organizations in South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe according to selection criteria we worked out together.