Our vision - 2019

Our vision for 2019

Talk and action

In late December we spent time working on our vision and dreaming big for 2019 - here’s the output!

Read our vision document below for 2019 and news on what’s coming up.

Your turn

If you would like to develop your young people through adventure leadership training or find out more about our leadership courses, do get in touch.

How to develop young people through experience

Highlights from our leadership development course for young people in Turkey

How to develop young people through experience

Steve & Andrew’s word for the week on developing young people

Steve and Andrew report on the recent leadership and development course for young people in Turkey

In early October Steve and Wilki travelled to Turkey, to deliver a leadership and development programme to some young people of a range of nationalities. The group were lively and warm from the outset and we were made to feel welcome both by our hosts Josh and Debbie, and also the students themselves.

The package was lively and focussed on experiential learning, and even the most bleary-eyed students in the mornings were sparked up by some of Steve’s energy-fuelled activities! After some fun exercises to get to know each other better, we spent some time thinking about the significance of strong interpersonal relationships within a team, before moving on to a session on trust within teams.

We made good use of some local green spaces to do some trust-building exercises, before drilling into the detail of the different stages of a team, and some likely features to look out for when the group return home to build their own teams in the coming months.

Day 3 focussed fully on communication as leaders, which included some excellent exercises to illustrate how vital it is to understand ourselves in order to communicate well, and to understand how to influence a whole range of different character types. The group absolutely loved this session, not just because it was innovative but it also clearly illuminated some of the character traits they recognised both in themselves but also each other.

As always, the best way to develop what’s been learned is through experience, and so we spent an afternoon putting the group through a number of scenarios and activities - some were practical, some physical and all required thoughtful dialogue within the team to succeed.

We wrapped up the programme with some pre-mission training, centring around navigation, stretcher building, search techniques, casualty evacuation and basic first aid. The group were then dispatched into a search and rescue mission over rugged terrain, with a clear mission which they managed to complete just before the time ran out! Perfect brinkmanship!

Finally, we sat down to review what we had done and learned - which elements of the mission had been a great success and where the low points were, before evaluating their strengths as a team and where they might focus their development for the future.

It was an exciting, fully-charged and rewarding few days and it was a pleasure to work with this highly motivated group. Thanks to the group from us both!

Your turn

If you would like to develop your young people through adventure leadership training or find out more about our leadership courses, do get in touch.

Stand up and be known

An activity day for The Salvation Army in Llanelli developing young people

Stand up and be known

Steve’s word for the week on being you and being community

Friendship is one of the most precious things we see being developed consistently throughout our youth events and activities.

There is no formula being outworked here, no social engineering just a safe space to express, to take a step outside some comfort and lose ourselves in the moment.

As I reflect on how many of these team events we have delivered throughout the years I’m humbly reminded at how friendship endures, encourages and strengthens through the storms of life.

As human beings we need each other, we are built to connect and connection is part of being human. This picture above is of an activity day we ran for the Salvation Army on 20 August 2018 on North Dock in Llanelli.

It sums up so much of what friendship and community is:

Commitment

To journey together. Through the good times and the bad. To say in action, ‘I’m with you’.

Communication

To listen well. To find the rhythm within the relationship, to work to become in tune and stay in time, to go in the right direction

Courage

To step out and be known. Space to get it wrong, strength to get it right, to forgive, to be forgiven, to laugh and to cry, to choose be known.

Multiplying Future Leaders

You can model leadership, talk about leadership and even write about leaders; these are all great aspects of training, but miss something.

Experiencing leadership in action is the missing piece of the jigsaw.

Experiencing leadership in action this is what our Solid Ground leadership course is all about.

Last May 30 young adults aged between 18- 30 years old from around South Wales engage in a 3 day intensive programme.

Here’s what they had to say, and their words say it all:

“I have learned so much throughout these three days - thank you”

“Life-changing”

“More people should be on these courses - great!”

Your turn

If you would like to develop your young people through adventure leadership training or find out more about Solid Ground Leadership courses, do get in touch.