Facilitation Work
When facilitating a group of people, I take time before planning sessions to get to know the participants interests and what they want to gain from the sessions, whether it being to learn a new skill or to provide an environment where they feel comfortable and welcome, where they can socialise while making. In pictures below you will see pieces of artwork that have been created in sessions that achieved a person centred approach by taking the interests and needs into consideration.
Pictures below are taken from different sessions with participants of variety ages and abilities.
Preparing for spring – 2021
As mentioned, throughout my sessions I aim to achieve a person-centred approach, allowing participants to gain what they want from the session. Here is an example of this.
The session was set in a nursing home that specialises in Dementia care. When discussing ideas for sessions reoccurring themes/ideas were being presented, gardening and holidays that they looked forward to (example, Bonfire night, see pictures below). Prior to the session, participants and I discussed the types of flowers they wished to plant over a cup of tea and cake. The session was very popular and was requested again the second year.
Gloves and aprons were offered but unused as all participants got stuck in, some using tools provided and others using their hands, by choice. Their smiles and laughter filled the nursing home during the session, with other members of staff including the manager and deputy joining in and also leaving amazing feedback.
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The Beauty Parlour – 2021
These series of photographs were taken from a session in a nursing home that specialises in Dementia care. In the icebreaker session, where we discussed ideas and themes for future sessions. It was suggested that the participants would like an area where they could pamper themselves. This session in particular was designing a nail painting station. Participants choose the background design and flower details themselves. These designs were printed and stuck to a wood surface using PVA glue, and then with the help of the nursing home’s maintenance team turned into a table, where participants/other residents could sit and have their nails done.
This session allowed parts for participants of different abilities, with some able to cut the designs and others able to apply the glue. Less able participants were still happy to participant by having their input on where they thought the flowers would look best.
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Bonfire Night Crafts – 2021
This session is also set in the nursing home that specialises in Dementia care. As previously mentioned, a popular session idea was holidays there were coming up. During this session, black card was used to replicate the night sky, while participants used bright contrasting acrylic paints, glitters and gems to recreate fireworks.
This session was beneficial to participants as all participants were diagnosed with dementia. Many participants couldn’t pinpoint was date it was, but with the themed sessions, such as bonfire night, Christmas, even gardening allowed them to have more of an awareness of what time of year it was.
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Clay Christmas Decorations – 2022
This session was another session with the theme of an upcoming holiday, Christmas. I personally found that Holiday sessions were very popular throughout all my facilitations.
This session was set into two parts. The photographs 1 – 3 above are taken from part 1, with the final photograph being taken the next day in part 2 of the session, where participants and I made Christmas decorations/tree ornaments from clay. The session was set in two parts to allow time for the clay to dry. Participants commented that they had something to look forward to with the session being split over two days.
Due to the nature of the setting that this session was in, tools that were used to create the shapes were made of plastic allowing them to be accessible for all participants. Although many participants chose to use their hands to mould and form their desired shapes.
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Pebble Painting – 2021
Using acrylic paints and a variety of size paint brushes, participants painted different colourful and bold patterns on the pebbles. This session allowed for another accessible sessions, allowing participants of all abilities to participate. The freedom of not setting a theme for participants to have to paint on the pebbles allowed them to make the design as detailed are they desired. Some participants only used one colour while others used a wide variety.
Due to the nature of the setting of the session, which was an older adult psychiatric ward in a hospital, it was important to use bright colours and palm sized pebble to due to many participants suffering from visual impairments.