My dream for guidance!

Until recently I thought this dream would stay a dream but my experiences in the last couple of weeks have made me realise some of the things I would like to see in guidance are infact already happening if you look closly enough. Some of the key things I would like to see are;-

More locally based all age guidance projects, based in easily accessible shop fronted premises or perhaps even based in community centre ,staffed by managers who still practise guidance themselves and where career advisors are not only office based but are involved in outreach work, both door to door and with their mobile office going into schools and more remote areas. A service where it isn't just about getting a job and someone ticking a box but where strong links and relationships can be made with members of the local community so that the service can better respond to peoples needs and where local people also have the opportunity to be involved in some way perhaps in mentoring or going into schools to talk about their work, perhaps having job blogs that young people can access to find out what different careers are really like. It would also be a service which took a holistic approach which didn't ignore the realities of people's social situation and barriers that they may face in working towards their goals be that work, paid or voluntary , education or further training. It would be a service where diversity in approaches to guidance was postively encouraged and good practice could be shared and lastly although I could say so many more things it would be a service that could prove it's worth not just by the use of statistic but by using peoples stories.

Knocking on doors, how does it feel?

This should have been included in my last post but I ran out of time, anyway just wanted to share a few thoughts from my experience knocking on doors with Community Regeneration, a project based in Craigmillar. The aim of the project is to help rebuild a sense of community in the area, not only that but to encourage local residents to become actively involved in improving their community, it also helps people with health issues and the process of moving back into employment . I spent the day knocking on doors with one of their Animators (curious title), who had a guidance background herself, we wanted to get peoples opinions of what they thought of the area, how they enjoyed living there, any changes they would like to see, also if there was any help we could give them with health issues or moving back into work. Of the doors we went to, some people were obviously in but didn't want to answer fair enough, others were out, and then we have the people that actually did invite us into their homes and of those I can honestly say that although I didn't always feel entirely comfortable, it was a great way to engage with people and to reach those that can be hard to reach for whatever reason . It was good for many reasons for example it opened up a dialogue that was on their terms, it was a gentle approach a conversation really, and skillfully led initially by the Animator , people were very open and full of good ideas of how they thought the community could be improved, achieveable improvements aswell and things that you could see the local community really getting behind. I learnt so much that day just knocking on doors, I can really see how that could be one of the ways forward in engaging those young people who are harder to reach.

Community Guidance in Craigmillar

My final placement was at Adult Learning Link in Craigmillar and for a number of reasons I was thoroughly looking forward to it, firstly as my background is in youth and community work so being based in smaller projects in the heart of a community is where I feel most at home , second Mark the guidance worker there had already been into speak to the class about his work and he turned out to be quite an inspiring and colourful character so I was looking forward to what I might learn and thirdly the chance to do some adult guidance great! It's quite a small team at ALL comprised of an Administrator, Community Education worker and Adult Guidance Worker, the office had a shop front was based on the main street and so easily visible and accessible to the residents of Craigmillar ,consequently business was booming as people could either just drop in or come in for prearranged appointments. ALL provides a range of services from careers advice, C.V writing, job serach skills, redundancy counselling plus many others. As you may know alot has been happening in Craigmillar over the past 10 years as it is the subject of mass regeneration, most of the old flats have been torn down or refurbished this has improved the area tremendously from a cosmetic perspective, as far as the local community goes to some extent it has become fragmented, many people were decanted out during the regeneration some returned once their houses were ready for reoccupation and some stayed away as they had built new lives elsewhere. I mention this as it quickly became clear from the people coming through our doors how this had effected the diversity of the local population, there was a much greater ethnic mix than I was expecting, people from Africa, Pakistan , Egypt, Poland to name but a few, also many others had been attracted into the area the new good affordable housing. This has had a considerable effect on shaping the services provided at ALL the local community has in effect molded the service consequently it is meeting that communities specific needs, that is one of the beauty of guidance based in the community, we are not just providing a branded homoginised service it becomes tailor made. The other thing that really impressed me was great local knowledge the workers at ALL had,they have a high profile in the community, have good relationships with the local people, basically they have their fingers on the pulse. How do they achieve this? I suppose quite simply they are very welcoming, they get to spend time with people and build relationships,often people will come for more than one visit, some people drop in on a weekly basis just to have a quick chat or odd querie cleared up. It really is part of that community, couldn't help thinking though how great it would be if they could open it up to the young people of Craigmillar, maybe incorporating some outreach work I wonder what would happen then?