Children’s Interactive Talks Feedback!
We absolutely LOVE engaging, interacting and inspiring children who are walking the path we did in care.
Early January our mentor Courtney, Matt and Andy and travelled to Halifax Timeout Childrens Homes Ltd and spent a lovely day delivering fun, inspirational, engaging and informative sessions to a number of children in Timeouts care at the most wonderful of settings
We loved it – this is what it’s ALL about – being REAL, being present and being on the ground with the children that will take our lived experience, advice and guidance forward in life…
It wasn’t just inspiring by PowerPoint, it was encouraging the children to take those masks off, have fun, think about things such as who are their role models, will their past define their future, what’s the best advice they have ever had or can give and showing empathy and care to other children they share a school with 38 weeks a year….real advice and life skills to help them on that life journey.
We engaged children aged between 10-15 and had lots of FUN.
It started with the welcome, it starts with understanding children will turn up and be distant but not reacting to that, not shaming, showing empathy, our vulnerability, giving positive reinforcement, saying thank you to the children for giving their time and role modelling that behaviour…
It’s funny how the vibe in the room changes when you drop the “we grew up in care” bomb…how heads lift from the floor, how all of a sudden someone can tell that maybe just maybe someone can relate to my situation….vulnerability is 🔑 at the right time
It’s ALL in the approach – but engaging children is a skill and probably one of the hardest skills to learn – it starts with the welcome…our face, our words and how we come across….we may not know all the theories, and master all the complicated words BUT we can proudly say that children love being in our presence because we LOVE being around children and it’s our duty to give back.
This feedback we received meant the world.
One lad who turned up refusing to take part in the ice breaker and adopted the “hard man mask” soon took that mask off,engaged in great conversations, was vulnerable and reached out to us after on our Instagram to say thank you! We didn’t rise to the behaviour – we understood it because it was like a little Andy or Matt, Courtney arriving…understanding, vulnerability and positive reinforcement won the boy over 👌
Here is a pic of Matt and Courtney before one of our talks/group activities…
Well done to Courtney who took part in. her first talk and showed some great skills interacting, engaging and being vulnerable (human) the children took a lot away from you! The future looks very bright !
Thank you Timeout for approaching us, inviting us and being such perfect hosts – we felt very well looked after and it’s clear the children loved being around you all – the manors and politeness from every child was brilliant
If you are interested in our talks, group work or interactive sessions with children please contact info@smashlifeuk.com – let’s chat
“Overcoming Life’s Hurdles Together”