The Department of Probation’s- Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre- Zenaida Haven Care Staff, Juvenile Probation Team and Security Officers attended training over a two week period from February 6th – February 17th, 2017. The training focused on topics geared towards heightening participants’ knowledge and understanding the juvenile offenders and their needs as well as developing skills that would develop their practice.
Over the two week period the topics covered and facilitators responsible for delivering the training were: Mrs. Marilyn Hodge- Behaviour Management, Mr. Iain Bibby- Substance Abuse With Youths, Ms. Jennyville Smith- Team Relationship Building, Dr. Linda Banks- Understanding Youth Crime, Ms. Maris Edwards- Spiritual and Wellbeing, Mrs. Angelina Carty- Convention on the Rights of the Child and Ms. Sandra York-Gumbs- Importance of Consistency, Boundary Setting and Behaving in Empowered Ways.
The training is hoped to have empowered and educated staff with specific techniques to offer more inclusive and comprehensive services to our young people and their families. The sessions also encouraged staff to appreciate self and each other as working colleagues. The driving goal behind each presentation was to make staff knowledgeable and be aware of techniques to deal with the challenges that can be encountered daily.
The participants were exposed to relevant information to assist them with improving their day to day duties. They participated in a number of group activities and discussions which allowed them the opportunity to have open communication and practice team building skills. The sessions also allowed staff to do some self-reflection and highlighted ways to improve working relationships with residents and colleagues.
The facilitators highlighted that they were impressed with the high levels of participation and engagement displayed by all of the attendees. It was evident that the staff were eager to expand their knowledge and passionate about the work that they do. Many of the participants indicated that they found the sessions to be very relevant and informative as did they find the facilitators to be extremely knowledgeable.
Supervisor of Zenaida Haven, Ms. Yoshida Gumbs on behalf of the Department of Probation extended thanks to all participants and facilitators for an extremely successful training exercise.
– Press Release
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
