Dorset Charity leads the way in offering Wellbeing and Self-Care Staff and Manager Training
With over 150,000 charities in England and Wales and each of them asking businesses to donate funds, the charity sector has become very crowded and as such many charities have become marginalised and many do not receive the funds needed to continue providing their services.
Sexual Trauma and Recovery Services (STARS Dorset) is perhaps not a charity that resonates unless you or someone you know has suffered sexual abuse or sexual assault in their life, yet the work it does is vital. The charity supports anyone who works, studies or lives in Dorset who has been affected by sexual violence at anytime in their life. Last year the charity supported over 1000 people in the county however due to the nature of the charity’s work it is perhaps not the first choice for a business to support.
STARS Dorset has had to evolve and grow. At last month’s Dorset Business Awards it’s new branding, designed by Global Brand Communications, won the Creative Impact Award. The charity is moving forward and also learning what it can give back, not to continually ask businesses for monies but to look at what skills the charity has that businesses can benefit from and as such provide training.
Currently the charity has two types of training on offer for Dorset businesses led by its Clinical Lead Gerry Jones and its Clinical Supervisor Alison Woodward who is a trained psychotherapist and facilitator. These two types of training can be separated into: training for staff and training for team leaders and / or managers.
STARS Dorset’s SELF-CARE STAFF TRAINING consists of empowering individuals to articulate their mental health needs, encouraging them to take on an active role in understanding their mental health and in turn helping them translate these needs to their managers. The training looks at reconnecting the individual with their job and the skills they possess, helping them find a work life balance and looking at how they can get the help they need from the organisation in a positive empowering way. The emphasis is taken away from what the organisation can do generically but instead looks at how the individual, that is part of the system, can articulate their needs and work to their potential in a healthy way.
The charity also offers MANAGEMENT TRAINING ON TRAUMA AND DEFENSIVE BEHAVIOUR. This training looks at how employees defence mechanisms can manifest in a work environment from stress, anxiety, bullying or from issues within their home life such as bereavement or even domestic abuse. It helps managers understand the effects of trauma and why people respond in certain ways, helping them see past an employee’s behaviour and look at the reasons why they are behaving in a certain way. Attendees learn how the brain responds to trauma and how this response can then be triggered in stressful situations in the work environment. Within this training the charity can also look at managing disclosures, how to work with an employee who is suffering from some form of sexual violence such as assault or abuse in their life.
As a charity STARS Dorset are happy to also offer bespoke courses using the skills it has that fit with specific business needs. If you need any further information or would like to book in training for 2020 please get in contact with Vikki Taylor on 01202 308840.