Communication and coaching skills to approach and support the young PwVHPI and the family

It can show you what works and what doesn’t when trying to effectively engage and activate young people as well as their families.

Before you even start to organise your meeting or event, it’s worthwhile checking that this is actually what you need to do and that it’s realistic for your budget etc. It’s also important to identify who can help you – ideally you’ll have a team of people with different strengths (logistics, publicity, artwork/graphics, content creation etc.). If you’re the sole organiser, use experienced people to check your initial ideas and make sure you’re on the right track.

Step 2: Discussion in a team

Together with your organising team, discuss the following questions:

• What are our goals?
• Is an event/meeting the best option for what we want to achieve and for our audience?
• Is there sufficient time to organise and publicise it adequately?
• What resources can we muster for this event or meeting? Who else can help?
• What do we want those coming to know/do/experience?
• Will people attend? What needs assessment survey have we done for this event/meeting? Is it something that people have been calling for, or an idea someone came up with? If the latter, it may pay to ring around a few people you would expect to attend and check on their interest.
• Are there any possible legal aspects, such as GDPR / health & safety considerations?

Step 3: Drafting an action plan

Write up an action plan with allocated tasks and organise one person to check periodically that things are on schedule. For a big meeting or event, you may need to draw up an indicative budget. Even for a smaller event, it’s important to check you have enough money for venue hire or the technical equipment, alternatively you may think of catering as well. On the income side of the budget, consider whether:

• Costs can be shared amongst different groups and agencies.
• Sponsorship is a possibility (for instance renting a venue free of charge from your local school).
• It’s practicable to charge participants (even as a voluntary contribution).

Step 4: Cost assessment

Think about whether any of the following expenses will apply:

• Venue hire.
• Equipment hire.
• Travel reimbursement/accommodation for your speakers.
• Entertainment.
• Food and drinks.
• Artwork/displays/decoration.
• Mail-out of invitations.
• Advertising.
• Transport (e.g. providing a bus etc.).
• Stationery and photocopying.
• Cleaning.

Step 5: Invitations – who to invite and how

For a ‘start-up’ meeting or public meeting, invite everyone who has shown an interest and publicise it widely so everyone has a chance to get involved. Use a range of publicity options, such as school newsletters, posters on notice boards and shop windows, free papers, local radio. Send a copy of the programme and a press release to the local papers. When advertising, keep in mind the objective and target audience – let the audience know what they will get out of attending.

Step 6: Venue organisation

Check out the venue in person or get someone you trust to do it. Consider:

Size – enough room for everyone together, plus space for break-out groups.

Suitability of furniture and facilities – number of chairs and tables, comfort, equipment availability, location of power points, parking, access for disabled.

Location – travel times, transport to venue. Is it near your project? Easy to find?

Lighting/blackout for slides and overheads, heating and fresh air.

Acoustics and background noise levels from the street or other meeting rooms.

Access to refreshment facilities and toilets.

Space for displays and other information.

Occupational, safety and health hazards – undertake a site inspection prior to the event.

Accommodation if required – at a standard and price that suits the audience.

Step 7: Setting a date and time

For a meeting or small event, try to give people two weeks’ advance notice. For more significant events, such as an all-day event with active participation workshops for example, you may want to give a month’s notice and request a confirmation of an invitation. Follow this up 3–5 days before the event with a phone around or further general publicity.

Consider organising a ‘telephone tree’ to share the load or focus on people you think are critical to the success of your project. Sending out personally addressed invitations works well. Make sure you include a map if directions are required and list clothing needs for events outdoors or field trips.

Hold the meeting or event at a convenient time for everyone. Consider school hours, and the time of the year (avoid days around holidays or periods in which harvest or grape harvest is taking place, if your organisation works in rural area!) Avoid clashes with other events or major projects.

Consider how long you need to achieve your purpose and how far people might have to travel. If a half-day is suitable, start after lunch time, or hold the event in the morning and finish with lunch.

Step 8: Organising equipment and materials

• Identify handouts for photocopying, such as copies of slides or speaker’s notes.
• Identify any background information you want to display.
• Prepare a clipboard and contact sheet for registration.

Always make sure your material is accessible.

Identify the equipment that you, the facilitator, presenter(s) and caterers may need. Make up a kit/bag to take to meetings and events with any materials you might need.

Step 9: Organising the “D” day.

Get to the venue at least one hour before the event starts. Put out signs to direct people. For a meeting:

• Arrange chairs in a semi-circle or circle where practical.
• Organise refreshments so that they’re ready when you need them.
• Clear away any unnecessary rubbish, posters, chairs or tables but remember where things were so you can leave the room as you found it.
• Arrange paper, pens, sticky notes, whiteboards, and overhead projectors so they’re in easy reach. Try out equipment to ensure it works and you know how to work it. Set out materials for small groups to record ideas.

Step 10: Refreshments (optional)

A meeting or event is usually only as good as its food – in fact you’ll often use this as a draw card to get people there, so make it the best you can!

• Consider dietary needs (such as vegetarians) and have coffee, tea and water.
• Organise equipment to keep and serve food – warmers/fridges/chilly bins, paper plates, tea towels, cutlery or finger food. Consider reusable or biodegradable plastic cups – avoid polystyrene.
• Offer the catering to a local group (such as a local association or charity) to give them a fundraising opportunity.

Step 11: Choosing presenters, chairperson and/or facilitators

Consider who should facilitate or chair the meeting or event – ideally someone with local respect, an understanding of the issue and experience in facilitation. A guest speaker could also be a good idea. Try to engage speakers who can relate to youth – be it young people, volunteers, youth workers or local Eurodesk representatives (for example), or maybe even a municipality official responsible for the youth sector. Your speakers need to be able to engage with the audience in an effective way!

If a formal presentation is planned, organise a practice run and offer feedback on length, language, etc.

Make sure you brief everyone with a formal meeting or event role. It’s important for them to understand the time they have available, the purpose of the meeting/event, how their role/presentation fits with this, and to be aware of any technical matters such as how to work equipment, location of lighting, etc. It’s also important that people understand the role of the facilitator.

Additional information:

Agenda and process

Working out how your meeting or event will run is a critical step in your preparation.

Purpose and results

When planning your meeting or event, be clear what you want to achieve by the end of it. This will help identify your key messages, meeting or event purpose and key topics for the agenda.

Designing the experience

As well as the outcomes or issues you want to resolve, consider what type of experience you want people to have. Are you aiming for fun, joint decision making, cultural exchange, sharing knowledge on a topic, debate, learning skills, or a celebration of people’s contributions and achievements? Consider appropriate ritual or ceremony, such as song or performance, plaques or certificates. Use an element of humour or entertainment where appropriate.

Allowing for introductions

Welcomes and introductions are important to help people to get oriented and feel at ease. Sometimes it will be appropriate to begin your meeting or event with a formal speech or an introduction in form of a testimonial by a former participant for example – take guidance from someone familiar with the cultural setting and people you will be working with. For meetings, workshops and seminars, introduce the organisers, speakers, the facilitator or chairperson at the beginning. Where time allows, ask all participants to introduce themselves, especially where people will work together later on (for example, at a workshop). Consider using a round for introductions or an ‘icebreaker’.

Remember to invite people to leave their name, address, and phone number (send around an attendance list) and to ask for the names of those who couldn’t come but want to be kept in contact.

For public events, consider having:

People at the entrance to welcome visitors, hand out an information package, or gather registrations.

A notice board with ‘Welcome’ and critical information posted underneath, such as the schedule, location of displays, toilets, refreshments, etc.

Creating an inclusive process

Everyone should be able to contribute constructively to the discussion and activities. This means a minimum of ‘talking at’ and a maximum of ‘talking with’ participants:

Use inclusive activities or methods to run the meeting or event.

Encourage participation when facilitating.

Provide time for feedback at critical points in the meeting or event and at the end.

Tempo and timing

To keep energy levels high, think about the order and length of activities:

§ Allow sufficient time for breaks and social time/networking, particularly for long meetings.

§ Don’t try to do too much or fit in too many speakers.

§ Plan something active or interesting after lunch/coffee break.

§ Have a mix of full group sessions and small group discussion.

Provide a range of activities for different learning styles – some visual, aural, and movement-based activities. For meetings, consider how long people are sitting down – the average concentration span is about 20 minutes for any one topic. Don’t sit for more than an hour at a time. For field days, consider how long people will be able to stand in one place and how long it will take to move between sites.

Q&A and Planning your evaluation

Reserve a good slot of the event for a Q&A session (at least 30 minutes).

Consider how you will evaluate your meeting or event when you’re designing it. Be specific about exactly what you want to review or evaluate as this will help you decide the best way to go about it.

Check out basic group techniques for how to design your evaluation and review events or group progress for specific techniques.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledge all contributions on the day with public and personal thanks, including participants as well as the people who made it possible, such as caterers.

Send thank you notes to speakers, hosts, helpers, sponsors etc.

Travel reimbursements, if possible, can be helpful for those who travel a long way.

Partnership

Make sure association/organisation staff don’t outnumber locals at the meeting/event and keep paper to a minimum – both can be intimidating to those looking to get involved. Structure the meeting or event so your organisation is a part of the group rather than always in charge. Invite feedback on your ideas or alternative options. Consider what the local people are getting out of attending, not just your own needs. Think partnership!

The text was based on an online source and adapted for the purposes of the DARE project. On the same source you can access further information like the checklists to follow when organising an info day or get further ideas on group involvement techniques.

Having a journal will help you keep everything in order and assess improvements made with each individual peer you are motivating to join a youth activity (locally or internationally).

Step 2: Design a general outline (example: name, contacts, objectives, interests, notes)

Step 3: Fill in the boxes after meeting each person to define their goals, aspirations and personal interests.

Step 4: Remember to underline their specific needs in order to address them in the process.

Step 5: Please refer to the additional learning resource no. R3.5 to find out more about a personal journal.

& actionable tips to overcome communication barriers

interact with a deaf person. The resource includes

videos (including one about lip reading) and

interesting articles on the matter.