Facilitation and Training
When I first started as an Associate Lecturer at the Open University, my line manager mentioned that our role was being a good facilitator of learning. With that she meant that there was no need to overstate our knowledge or justify our position as lecturers. Our credentials and experience already did that. Our job was to support students to acquire the skills and knowledge required not only to pass the module but to enthuse them to continue learning.
That conversation back in 2009 really had an impact on me, and since then I have been trying to be just that, a facilitator of learning in whatever field I am working on.
I always aim to follow this approach whether I am working for the Public Private and Third Sectors , mostly in the area of gender issues, community development as well as accessibility, or with organisations on dance and movement.
My facilitation and training work, as the rest of my portfolio, is varied and colourful. I have run numerous focus groups and research projects in community settings, partly as my work as Project Manager at the Trust for Developing Communities (2008 – 2012) but also as an academic and freelancer at the Hansard Society (London) and Said Business School (Oxford), Open University/UNISON (Dementia Awareness Training, UK), Gender Caucus WSIS (Geneva/Belgrade) and ArtsWork (Southampton).
My facilitation experience is currently evolving around devising training for organisations specifically on the topics of self-care, nervous system management and dance and health.
In that context, I am closely working with Healing and Expressive Recovery Arts Programme (HERA) which is a leader in social prescribing, participating in away days and conferences raising awareness about the role of dance and movement for people’s health and wellbeing.
In this line of work, I devised and delivered a 15 month programme with SAMPAD supporting South Asian dancers to take their art and dance practice to health settings. This training consisted of a combination of theoretical and practical days, with a mentoring programme attached to it while the practitioners were delivering in their placements.
I have also worked with Justlife, presenting self-care tools to support front line workers so that they are safe and healthy. Similarly I have worked with organisations such as carer centres around the UK, Roche and the Open University , to support employees, carers and front line workers to be healthy and avoid burn out.
If you have a project in mind in which we could work together, or you would like to discuss an idea, please get in touch