UPDATE FROM ANNE-MARIE – 20.09.2011

Hey guys,

I have just returned from Kenya where EFA is alive and kicking! The cohort I trained in July have set up a fortnightly meeting to support each other through the early days of using these very new skills. They are desperate for more people to be trained – they totally support the EFA concept. I was humbled yet again by the impact!

Play Kenya are opening a therapeutic house for young girls who have been sexually abused and it is my hope that ALL our staff will include EFA training in their skill sets. I hope you manage to spread it globally!!

Take care Anne-Marie

For more information about the work Play Kenya are undertaking you can visit their website at: www.playkenya.com

Blog from Anne-Marie:

Wow – I had NO idea just how emotional this session would be! This has been an awesome journey with so much positive learning going on. This group have embraced every aspect of this course and I have watched the change happen! Even when we talked about self harm in session 5 there was a feeling (a very strong feeling!) that these were ‘bad kids’ who were totally selfish and attention seeking – one participant from an orphanage who used to be a ward nurse said that they used to fix the wounds of those who had self harmed, but never thought to look at the emotional side. She said she has changed her view now. Another group member who works in a juvenile remand centre says he is much more aware and that he will be looking at the emotions of the children who cut and burn themselves rather than label them bad kids! Such enormous steps in such a short time!

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Blog from Anne-Marie

Ok – when it was decided we would run a 6 session emotional first aid training course I was naturally excited – I was convinced I would be helping the local staff to understand the emotions behind the behaviours and help them understand that YP get ‘stuck’ with a behaviour and that is a coping mechanism for them – I hope I’ve done that and given them the theory behind it.

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Anne-Marie Tipper, EFA Trainer based in Windsor is a co-founder of the chairty Play-Kenya www.playkenya.com

EFA have donated some material for Anne-Marie to deliver the Emotional First Aid course to youth workers in orphanages in Kenya. Anne-Marie has kindly offered to keep us updated with a weekly blog which we will post on the news feed. We wish her every success and are very excited that we can support her in this venture.

I am so excited to be beginning EFA Kenya – I am going out next week and Play Kenya (www.playkenya.com) will be delivering to the first Kenyan cohort! Some of the institutions we work with in Kenya have very vulnerable young people and the staff have little or no training about their emotional needs – this training is going to make so much difference to their lives! I cannot wait to start and will keep you all posted – I will also being doing a daily blog on our Play Kenya site from next week – so please feel free to comment – and get saving to come next year to deliver to even more of the wonderful Kenya people!!!
Thank you for your support guys in making this happen!
Anne-Marie Tipper

On Saturday 15th January 2011, Stuart Gemmell & Paul Jetten began facilitating a trial cohort of EFA for Young People to a group of students on the PGCE course at Southampton University.

The students were about to start their second group of placements in schools in the Southampton area and were teaching a wide variety of subjects including Science, IT, Languages & History.

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The Emotional First Aid Team would like to thank the students from Southampton and Portsmouth Universities who have just completed their Interprofessional Learning Unit (IPLU 2) with us. Over the last two weeks the students, who are all in their second year, have been undertaking an audit as part of their health related degree courses.

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