MACS CONFERENCE
PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT DATE HAS NOW PASSED

How organisations can deliver better services by ‘buying together’

We welcome you to attend this multi-disciplinary event which promises to offer a rich sample of innovative interventions and approaches to working with children and young people.

Whether your organisation is in the voluntary or statutory sector, if you work with children and/or young people, you will have come across ideas or interventions that you wish your clients could avail of. These workshops will likely add to this wish list.

Richard O’Rawe, from the former Collaboration NI  will explore with attendees how their charities and organisations can pull their resources to provide cutting edge interventions by ‘buying together’.

9:00 – 9:30 Registration
9:30 – 11:00 Introductions from Mary Ryan, CEO of MACS supporting children and Young People; an address by each of our workshop facilitators followed by Richard O’Rawe. Compered by comedian Nuala McKeever 
11:00 – 11:15 Tea & coffee break
11:15 – 12:45 First Workshop. Delegates attend the workshop chosen from the list below.
12:45 – 13:30 Lunch and networking in the exhibitor hall
13:30 – 15:00 Second Workshop. Delegates attend the workshop chosen from the list below.
15:00 – 15:30 Networking in the exhibitor hall
15:30 Close

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Workshop 1: EAGALA (Equine assisted growth and learning Association)

‘Horseplay’

Caitriona O’Meara ( Equine Training Solutions) and Jean Marie Robertson (Blue Feather Counselling and psychotherapy) will showcase the techniques used in their EAGALA practice during their experiential workshop – horses not included!

Workshop 2: Social Pedagogy

Professors Jan Storo from Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences in Norway is a leading academics and authors on Social Pedagogy. HIs colleagues, Assistant Professors Elisabeth Gronning and Svein Fuglestad are practitioners in creative methods in social work and social pedagogy

Jan Storo : Social Pedagogy: Theory, values and tools

Svein Fuglestad and Elisabeth Gronning will use creative methods to show social pedagogy in practice. They will aslo demonstrate some interactive, practical activities using puppets and music.

Workshop 3 : Motivational Interviewing

Glenn Hinds will explore the psychology and ‘mechanics’ of successful partnership working in therapeutic and organisational settings. Using the ‘Opening Strategies’ of Motivational Interviewing delegates will have the opportunity to enhance and develop their skills in engaging and maintaining others in exploring and achieving meaningful changes in their thinking and behaviours, and be better equipped to understand and respond effectively to ‘resistance’.

Workshop 4 : Somatic Experiencing

Dr Rosie Burrows: ‘Somatic Experiencing for Resilient Connection to ourselves and others’

Rosie Burrows Ph.D, BACP, SEP is a Resilience and Trauma Specialist and SE practitioner who will explain the SE approach to trauma with some practical examples

Workshop 5: Grit (formerly Youth at Risk )

‘GRIT: tough love programme that works’.

Grit Breakthrough Programmes’ Amira Asantewa and inspirational transformative trainer Cara Rule will introduce delegates to the principals behind their coaching programmes. They will offer a taster of their workshop on coaching for professionals.

An eclectic mix of exhibitors representing specialist services from leading NI charities and Trusts; drum circles, art and drama therapy services, bodywork, mindfulness, energy and psychological therapy providers etc are looking forward to sharing their disciplines with you and discussing how you can avail of them by ‘buying together’ with other delegates. MACS will be assisting with connecting interested parties.

More information on the workshop topics:

EAGALA (Equine assisted growth and learning Association)

The EAGALA Model, also known as Equine assisted learning and psychotherapy, is a team approach to personal development and counselling that includes a registered mental health professional, a qualified equine specialist, and horses working together with the client, or client group. Horses are emotionally intelligent non-verbal communicators who mirror human emotions/attitudes and moods. During tailored activities participants learn about themselves and others through observing how the horses react to them, aided by the psychotherapist. The underlying philosophy being that learnings through felt experience will be more profound and long lasting. It is particularly useful as an alternative to traditional talking therapies because the direct focus is on the horses, allowing children and young people to participate freely.

Social Pedagogy

In Continental Europe, where young people across welfare settings ‘do better’, the principals of social pedagogy are deep-rooted. In the UK, we are waking up to the need to improve communication and relationships between children, young people and the professionals they encounter; for professionals to integrate and overcome the ‘silo effect’; not just as a means to child protection but as a way of democratically facilitating children’s personal development and improving outcomes throughout their lifetimes. Lessons from our Nordic counterparts on how they use social pedagogy in practice will advise professional development and practice nearer to home.

Motivational Interviewing

Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative, goal-oriented method of communication with particular attention to the language of change. It is intended to strengthen personal motivation for and commitment to a change goal by eliciting and exploring an individual’s own arguments for change.

Somatic Experiencing

SE is a body-based approach that helps clients to safely release the bodily energies activated in trauma Developed by Dr Peter Levine who observed that wild animals, though routinely threatened, rarely are traumatised. Due to the way the human brain and nervous system has evolved over time, we don’t always discharge this traumatic energy. SE offers a framework to assess where a person is ‘stuck’ in the flight, fight, or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to release these energies which when left trapped often manifests as symptoms of depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, neurological disorders, with both physical and mental symptoms. The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma.

GRIT (formerly Youth at Risk)

Youth at Risk works with young people and the adults that support them, delivering high-intensity personal development and coaching initiatives to some of society’s most disruptive and excluded young people. Youth at Risk’s tough love approach is about the long haul, demanding an enormous amount of the young people in an emotionally demanding set of psychological and physical challenges, followed by months of support and supervision by local volunteers, taking the belief that ‘it takes a whole community to raise a child’.
Youth at Risks’ results and testimonials speak for themselves. As well as their Community Transformation Programme across England and highly acclaimed work in juvenile justice, the England based trainers have been involved in conflict work in Northern Ireland and Kosovo, as well as recent coaching workshops at Hydebank Wood College and Women’s Prison.

FAQs

How can I contact the organiser with any questions?

Please contact carlarollock@macsni.org or call the Belfast office on 028 90313163

Is it ok if the name on my ticket or registration doesn’t match the person who attends?

Yes, please notify us of any name changes by contacting us at least 24 hrs before event starts

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Date:
Tuesday, 10 October 2017
Time:
9:30 - 4:30pm
Venue:
La Mon Hotel & Country Club
Address:
41 Gransha Road, Castlereagh BT23 5RF
Tickets/RSVP:
£50 (Tickets via Eventbrite)
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