Our Peer Lead Approach Training For Volunteers
At the heart of everything that SPW does is coproduction and a peer led approach. Most of our team are single parents, we get all of our ideas from our members and we recognise how much wealth of knowledge and experience that there is the group. Therefore, if you come on board as a volunteer then we wanted you to get on board with what a peer led approach is.
We wanted to jam pack the videos with lots of information and food for thought around becoming a peer lead volunteer and give you the confidence to get involved. We are hoping that you are able to use this in other roles you may have and that it will be a good new addition to your CV.
In the training we cover:
The benefits of Peer Lead Approach and what it actually means
Peer Lead Ethos
Boundaries
Diversity and Inclusion
Risk Assessments
Group Contracts
Safeguarding
The videos are also available in English subtitles.
The aim is to empower them as well as reduce isolation and loneliness, by getting single parents to set up socials, outdoor meet ups, top up sessions, workshops and everything in between. It will also mean that SPW can grow and reach even more single parents all over Wales.
We decided to change the model of the training and move it online, and have a more accessible sustainable approach.
The initial plan was to train 40 single parents in person, at a venue and have a 1 off training session for this, that we would hire someone to deliver, who wasn’t a single parent but was a professional in the field. After consultation with our single parent members, and going into lockdown we understood that, understandably, our single parents were preoccupied with homeschooling, coparenting, working from home and lots of members being NHS frontline staff.
Then it was decided to pull in the power or our network and the resources we had in our group. Which included 3 single parents designing, developing and delivering the training.
We reallocated the grant money from The National Lottery Community Fund to get to work with our new approach to the training, with the peer lead approach at the centre.
“Have watched the videos sent - very impressed - comprehensive, informative and easy to digest ( like the idea of short videos presented by various different people)”
We asked the single parents what they would like the training to cover:
Safeguarding including a clear flowchart, plus somewhere to submit any safeguarding concerns.
Informal checklists for setting up outdoor meet ups and workshops (including online)
Certificate of completion to add to their career development and learning.
Accessible to any volunteer all over Wales
Bite sized chunks that you didn’t have to sit in a training room for a day.
As well as there points more useful ideas came to light:
Peer Lead checklist for setting up events and socials
Translate into Welsh
Sustainable resource that can be added to over time
Mental health of volunteers, to be featured and written by volunteers
Can be included as a great resource for staff inductions too
Added blog around self care as a peer lead by a counselor
Each project will see more videos and resources added
Worksheets to show an understanding and learning of the material
Branding with symbols for videos so that each video is easily distinguished
In total, so far, 60 single parents have accessed the peer lead approach training, we have also recently added 2 extra videos for our Connecting Creatively project that can be accessed when Facilitators are setting up a creative workshop. It has worked out to be a great accessible resource for single parents to flexibly view the parts most relevant to the type of volunteering that they are doing.
We have also recently partnered with Tempo Time Credits so that volunteers can access time credits for the volunteer work that they do for SPW and these can be spent on a whole host of things like day trips, cinema, counseling and many more things.
If you’d like to become a volunteer for SPW get in touch.