Urbis, Manchester
On Friday 24th, I delivered self-injury awareness training to our friends, the Depaul Trust.
It was a unique training opportunity for LifeSIGNS, as we normally train adults, professionals, counsellors and doctors, but on this occasion the audience was made up of Peer Mentors – volunteer youth workers around the ages of 16 and 17. The Depaul Trust Peer Mentors make themselves specifically available to the young people who congregate around the Urbis centre in Manchester.
It was great that Samantha, a Peer Mentor, suggested that LifeSIGNS visit the Depaul Trust. It’s quite evident that the Depaul Trust is empowring and supporting their volunteers, and our thanks go to Samantha and Rebecca for having us over.
I must say that training younger teenagers was a different experience for me! To begin with, at the very start, I felt like a school teacher with a rowdy class – how on earth was I going to engage their interest and command their attention??? I had no need to fear though, after an initial flurry of activity and settling in to the room, we all dived into the subject of self-injury and SI awareness.
LifeSIGNS is committed to delivering practical training that enables groups and organisations to think about the issue of self-injury and the underlying emotional concerns. We have delivered hundreds of hours of training, around the whole of the UK. We are pleased to see that more schools are asking for our training and information, and in the the coming year, we may well develop a training package for secondary school pupils.
Anyway, thanks to our friends at the Depaul Trust, and we hope our training helps you in some small way to tackle the stigma surrounding self-injurious behaviour and emotional distress.
Wedge
