Meeting #1 and #2 with Gracehaven
After much discussion amongst our group, we decided to reach out to the youths-at-risk at Gracehaven, The Salvation Army. The Volunteer Management Team got back to us and proposed that we teach anger management skills to the residents.
We had a total of two meetings with Gracehaven before we started on our sessions.
Using Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle, I will be reflecting on my greatest challenge and takeaway working with the Gracehaven Management Team.
Greatest Challenge
Concrete Experience
My biggest challenge would be communicating with Gracehaven, with regards to the changes in our proposal.
Understandably, the Volunteer Management Team is busy and might not have time to communicate via emails. However, due to the last minute changes only brought to our attention during the meeting, our whole team would have to make changes to the proposal accordingly, and in a rush.
For example, from working with a 'younger age group' and 'older age group' to just the 'younger' or suggesting four sessions at the first meeting then changing it back to the original three in the second.
Reflective Observation
Though Clara did follow up with calls, Gracehaven often did not give constructive feedback via calls.
Looking back, the slow pace at which our emails were responded to, compiled with the sudden changes that needed to be made, really challenged our group.
After each meeting, I would send out the meeting minutes and we would compile a 'To Do' list for us to allocate the work, often with tight deadlines, on top of our own individual responsibilities.
Abstract Conceptualisation
I was glad that our group was able to rise to the challenge, with some of us covering for the others are bust and vice versa. Unexpected circumstances are bound to arise, but this also helped develop our event planning skills and cultivate creativity under time constraints which are part of our learning objectives as well.
Active Experimentation
It is likely that in the future, I will meet people/organisations who are less responsive. If it is urgent, I would make a phone call to clarify everything before sending out an email to ensure that the details of our phone call was accurate.
Being willing to help out team members and being willing to ask for help is crucial in any team project as well.
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| Outside Gracehaven Gate 3 |
We had a total of two meetings with Gracehaven before we started on our sessions.
Using Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle, I will be reflecting on my greatest challenge and takeaway working with the Gracehaven Management Team.
Greatest Challenge
Concrete Experience
My biggest challenge would be communicating with Gracehaven, with regards to the changes in our proposal.
Understandably, the Volunteer Management Team is busy and might not have time to communicate via emails. However, due to the last minute changes only brought to our attention during the meeting, our whole team would have to make changes to the proposal accordingly, and in a rush.
For example, from working with a 'younger age group' and 'older age group' to just the 'younger' or suggesting four sessions at the first meeting then changing it back to the original three in the second.
Reflective Observation
Though Clara did follow up with calls, Gracehaven often did not give constructive feedback via calls.
Looking back, the slow pace at which our emails were responded to, compiled with the sudden changes that needed to be made, really challenged our group.
After each meeting, I would send out the meeting minutes and we would compile a 'To Do' list for us to allocate the work, often with tight deadlines, on top of our own individual responsibilities.
Abstract Conceptualisation
I was glad that our group was able to rise to the challenge, with some of us covering for the others are bust and vice versa. Unexpected circumstances are bound to arise, but this also helped develop our event planning skills and cultivate creativity under time constraints which are part of our learning objectives as well.
Active Experimentation
It is likely that in the future, I will meet people/organisations who are less responsive. If it is urgent, I would make a phone call to clarify everything before sending out an email to ensure that the details of our phone call was accurate.
Being willing to help out team members and being willing to ask for help is crucial in any team project as well.
Greatest Takeaway
Concrete Experience
My biggest takeaway was from working on the pre and post evaluation forms for the workshop as suggested by the programme executive.
I realised that there were so many different categories about anger management we could ask about. From the way they showed anger (physical aggression, verbal derogation, social isolation), whether they suppressed their anger or engaged in active/passive aggression.
Reflective Observation
I managed to find out more about the different ways that people can show anger and how they are typically categorised.
Prior to this, I always thought of aggression as physical actions. However, I failed to realise that words and even deliberately isolating someone from a group can be a form of aggression as well.
Abstract Conceptualisation
I realised that, though it would be useful to be able to classify all the information, the form should be clear and succinct, ensuring that the young residents understand the terms used and are able to fill in the form easily.
And therefore, I had to think from both the perspectives of the residents and the volunteers and filter out which questions.
Active Experimentation
This actually reminded me of my internship when I was at an advertising agency. I often had to balance the expectations from both the clients with the designers. The clients sometimes had little understanding of design and the time needed to conceptualise, while the designers would sometimes reject the clients' ideas or lose track of time conceptualising.
I would then have to manage both sides, for the time needed and expectations. After going through this over call or face-to-face, I would then send out an email to confirm that we are all on the same page.
(671 words)
Concrete Experience
My biggest takeaway was from working on the pre and post evaluation forms for the workshop as suggested by the programme executive.
I realised that there were so many different categories about anger management we could ask about. From the way they showed anger (physical aggression, verbal derogation, social isolation), whether they suppressed their anger or engaged in active/passive aggression.
Reflective Observation
I managed to find out more about the different ways that people can show anger and how they are typically categorised.
Prior to this, I always thought of aggression as physical actions. However, I failed to realise that words and even deliberately isolating someone from a group can be a form of aggression as well.
Abstract Conceptualisation
I realised that, though it would be useful to be able to classify all the information, the form should be clear and succinct, ensuring that the young residents understand the terms used and are able to fill in the form easily.
And therefore, I had to think from both the perspectives of the residents and the volunteers and filter out which questions.
Active Experimentation
This actually reminded me of my internship when I was at an advertising agency. I often had to balance the expectations from both the clients with the designers. The clients sometimes had little understanding of design and the time needed to conceptualise, while the designers would sometimes reject the clients' ideas or lose track of time conceptualising.
I would then have to manage both sides, for the time needed and expectations. After going through this over call or face-to-face, I would then send out an email to confirm that we are all on the same page.
(671 words)
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