Talking Hope Event
14 November 2018
Amazing event captured wonderfully @GSCBishopton @Talking_hope #moreofthistypeoffeedback #hope - Maria McGinley
Today was so absorbing and the presentations, conversations and in particular young people's films and reflections and the beautiful song sung after lunch were so powerful that I forgot to Tweet! - even once! Well done @Talking_hope Katherine and Emma and all involved. - Alison Gough CYCJ
Delighted to see that Hope continues to play such important role within the remit of the Care and Education of children at The Good Shepherd Centre - Allison Mulholland
These are a few of the comments from people that attended the ‘Talking Hope’ event’.
Phase one of the ‘Talking Hope’ project came to an end with an amazing event hosted here at the Good Shepherd Centre. We were delighted to welcome a mixture of social workers, mental health practitioners, secure care staff, Scottish policy advisers, academics and care experienced young people to the centre to generate meaningful conversations, exchange perspectives, share learning and get people thinking about the significance of 'talking hope' in theory and in practice.
Everyone in attendance have a huge interest in supporting hope amongst young people who have considerable risk in their lives. The 3 main focuses for the event were:
- Celebrate some of the great work being done to support 'hope' among young people.
- Learn from each other's experiences and listen to each other's perspectives on some of the challenges and opportunities for hope in this area.
- Think more carefully and tangibly about what hope means in the lives of young people and how it can be included meaningfully in the work being done to support them.
The day comprised of presentations from many influential people with a chance for questions after each of the presentations.
We are very proud to have 2 young people previously placed at the Good Shepherd Centre attend the event. Beth-Anne Logan who is now Co-Chair at The Care Review Scotland and a Board member at Children’s Hearings Scotland, shared her story of her experience in secure care.
One attendee commented on social media “Feeling so inspired by someone who is younger than me but definitely has so much more wisdom”.
Another young person who cannot be named sang Skinny Love by Birdie, accompanied on the guitar by Julie Steel, Wellbeing Support Worker at the Good Shepherd Centre. She captivated the audience, some of them so touched by her voice it brought them to tears.
Attendees were shown an exclusive screening of our Talking Hope videos made with young people in secure care at the Good Shepherd Centre. Young people spoke openly about what hope means to them and what 3 wishes they have in life. Some of the young people spoke about barriers they had faced and the hopeful turning points in their lives.
Throughout the day Graham Ogilvie, a cartoonist was interpreting the discussion with illustrations. View the video to see his amazing illustrations, music by Julie Steel.
To end the day we had a roundtable discussion and reflected on the day, which each group shared with everyone.
The event was a huge success and clearly reached its objectives as evidenced by the excellent feedback, the stimulating table conversations and the large amount of data generated in the form of images, illustrations, videos and written feedbackThe next stage is to take the learning generated from Talking Hope Phase I in combination with the learning and feedback gathered at the event and use that to inform the priorities and approach of Talking Hope Phase II, which aims to develop a Hope Framework for Transitions to support hope among young people on the way into and out of secure care.
To keep informed of the Talking Hope project please visit the website https://talkinghope.wordpress....
Or follow the project and the Good Shepherd Centre on twitter
@Talking_hope
