Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Facilitation Field-work in Prince Albert

- Sue Wildish and Gavin Reid -

When Helene Smit asked her Facilitation students from the South African College of Applied Psychology if they were interested in doing their supervised field-work in Prince Albert, we jumped at the opportunity. Both of us have lived overseas for most of our lives and we were keen to work in a smaller community where there was the chance of helping to facilitate some positive change.

Our role as facilitators is to help groups become more effective - we set aside our own opinions and work with the group, assisting it to make its own choices and decisions.

We worked with a variety of organizations – HoĆ«rskool Zwartberg school teachers, Grade 11 pupils, St John's Church, Home Hardware, Prince of Africa and the Tourism Association. The facilitation sessions covered a wide range of topics, from team building to skills training, and included about 60 full-time Prince Albert residents as participants.

We were really struck by how proud Prince Alberters are of their town and by the real sense of community and care for each other. We got the feeling that people genuinely want to make Prince Albert the best place possible, and were thrilled to play a part.

We would like to thank the following residents for their generosity in helping make the teacher's team-building a success: Bokkie Botha (The Olive Branch), Chantal Schoeman (Bergwater Winery), Di van der Riet Steyn (Prince of Africa), Essie Esterhuizen (Prince Albert Olives), Gay van Hasselt (Gay's Dairy). And to the inimitable Virna Gouws for helping us pull everything together.

We worked hard, but we loved our time in Prince Albert. If there's ever an opportunity to return and do some more work with the town, we would be delighted. Thank you for making us feel so welcome.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Outcome of Facilitation session.

What a positive contribution this is!

Is it possible that some of the participents could blog their opinions and outcomes of the facilitation process here?