Would you like to participate in a course that enables you to:
- help your family, friends, and wider community
- improve your own emotional wellness
- add to your skills
- progress towards a vocation or career in health and wellbeing
And allows you to get the most from:
- understanding how to help yourself and others better
- gaining a qualification
- volunteering or work opportunities
So this short course is for people who :
- wish to be more effective in their community & groups or
- would like some more skills to help others during this COVID difficult time or
- may already be, or want to be, health and wellbeing professionals and
- want to develop and hone their knowledge and competence
How do I know this is for me?
ALF have noticed throughout this COVID challenging year that many people in our communities are prepared to give up their time and effort to support others.
Equally, we may have drawn on some of that support ourselves.
Indeed, in our own local communities, members of the ALF team have been involved in setting up a number of groups to support people with both practical tasks, and emotional and physical health, and this year, literally hundreds of people have come forward in our small communities to offer to help others.
Giving and receiving support is very good for our health, and this is supported by the scientific research over the past few decades and, during 2020, many people have come to experience this first hand.
Either way, there are an increasing number of people whom have been confronted with challenges that have unsettled them and their wellbeing and, in response to that, there are an increasing number of people who would like to offer support, but may want to feel more confident in their knowledge and skills around how to help people effectively.
We know that it is essential for us all to understand how to keep ourselves healthy and well if we are to be of maximum service to others. Sometimes, under intense pressure, stress responses can creep up on us without realising it.
We also know from the research, that a large part of sustaining our own health during stressful times, is to offer support to others, that is, to become purposeful and have a sense of meaning in life.
This course provides the basic knowledge and skills needed to improve or sustain our own emotional/ mental wellbeing; understand how to recognise when things might be causing us to ‘wobble’ a bit; and to begin to learn how we can be of use to others who are experiencing emotional challenges, whether they are in our immediate family group, friends circle, or the wider community.
If you feel these things will be useful to you, then this course is for you.
In addition, it acts as an entry level course to our other Peer Coaching qualifications, that can be taken from level 2 all the way up to level 5.
How does this course differ from other similar courses?
You may have noticed that a number of similar types of courses have popped up in your area.
Ours differ from others in that we have created an innovative and unique approach to supporting people that is informed by psychological research, our own theoretical approach to peer support (called DENT), and we draw from our experience of working with clients for a number of decades, as well as from our own personal lived experience.
So, we have experienced both sides of the coin, so to speak, having studied and worked in the fields of psychology, psychotherapy, counselling, coaching, and peer support, whilst having also overcome our own significant challenges in our lives, and having received emotional and mental health care ourselves in the past.
We have also developed a range of practical tools and techniques that are unique to us, that can help you to both help yourself and others.
When and where does the course take place, is there are charge, and how do I sign up?
The course will start in July 2021 and will be delivered via zoom. You may enrol earlier to join the peer group, and meet your peers in the lead up to the course start date which will be confirmed closer to the time.
We have 4 full fee bursaries for those who live in the Stevenage and North Hertfordshire Area
For those who do not meet full funding criteria, we are able to run this course at a subsidised rate for both the accredited and unaccredited versions.
The accredited version gives you a qualification certificate at Level 2, in alignment with the National Qualifications Framework.
Accredited rate – £370 £220
Unaccredited rate – £300 £152
There is a payment plan option for those who are not eligible for a full bursary, if required.
Please print off and complete the registration form below. You can photograph it and then email it to contact@alfcic.org. If you would like to chat with someone about the form, please email us or call Emma on 07791 520388.