Building partnership Angie Hart – University of Brighton Kim Aumann – Amaze

1. Building partnershipAngie Hart – University of BrightonKim Aumann – Amaze

2. In the beginning…

3. Using the CoP approach “CoPs are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis”. (Wenger, E., McDermott, R & Snyder, W.M., Cultivating Communities of Practice, HBS Press, 2002)

4. CoPS • ‘groups of people informally bounded together by shared expertise and passion for a joint enterprise’. (Wenger and Snyder 2000, pp.139-140). • ‘share their experiences and knowledge in free-flowing, creative ways that foster new approaches to problems’. • ‘As a locus of engagement in action, interpersonal relations, shared knowledge, and negotiation of enterprises, such communities hold the key to real transformation – the kind that has real effects on peoples lives’. (Wenger 1998, p.85).

5. CoP ingredients • Domain .... has an identity defined by a shared field of interest; shared commitment and competence that distinguishes members from others. • Community ... members engage in joint activities, discussions, help each other, share information – to pursue their interest in the domain together. They build relationships that enable learning from each other. • Practice ... members are practitioners who develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems – a shared practice.

6. A group of people who … • share similar challenges • interact regularly • learn from and with each other • improve their ability to address their challenges • bring out each others tacit knowledge

7. BOUNCING BACK Building resilience with children and young people having tough times • Folk who wanted to develop their thinking and practice around applying a resilient approach to work or home • Common interest in children, young people and families

8. Who was involved • 21 members: 3 parents, 6 academics, 8 voluntary sector practitioners, 4 statutory sector workers • Monthly 3 hour meetings over 2 years • Facilitated meetings • Space to meet, think about and test a range of discrete resilience ideas in their own settings….with a view to developing RT further • Core group (2 community partners and 2 academics) administered the group and evaluated the CoP activity

9. Different perspectives Different types of knowledge

10. In role • What’s your unique knowledge base? (regarding children and young people socially disadvantaged and/or resilience)

11. Identifying what you bring

12. In role • What do you need to happen in the CoP for it to be useful to you?

13. How we did it • Group agreement: commitment, research participants • Group forming time • Initial training and learning in resilience and RT • Experimenting with resilience ideas in their own homes or work settings • Feeding back to group; using group as a resource to critique, refine ideas and practices • Willing to create and share resources • Additional support time for parents

14. COPs • Add to our understanding of how we come to know and learn • Raise issues about what knowledge is, whose knowledge we are talking about, how we come to know things, whether different approaches to finding things out result in different knowledge • Offer a framework that helps to see past the usual way of knowing and learning that happens within organisations & classrooms • Focus is on engagement with practice and the informal learning that comes with that engagement • Involve a process (not just an event) – brings out tacit knowledge

15. Second CoP - East Sussex • Focus on building resilience with young people 11+ • 15 members: 2 foster parents, 3 voluntary sector workers, 9 statutory workers, 1 academics • Monthly meetings for 3 hours, for 1 year • Co-ordinated and facilitated by community partner • Evaluated by University

16. Capturing impact • Interviews with CoP members at beginning and end of the project to capture their: • Understanding of RT • Ways in which they have or have not been able to implement it into their practice/families • How RT has or has not impacted on their own well-being • Own evaluation of the RT approach • Evaluators also observing CoP meetings to explore the detail of the transition from theory to practice

17. CoP products and activity • Training resources - Resilient Casework examples; Musical Resilient Bingo; workshop exercises tested and refined • Ready Steady Secondary Course – building resilience with parents and young people anxious about the transition to secondary school • Kinship Carers Action Research Project • Using RT with staff practice forums • Integrating RT into staff supervision • Building resilience with learning disabled young people via inclusive arts work

18. CoP products and activity • Using RT alongside Under 5s Protective Behaviour course for parents and little ones • Bullying Workshop for Parents including resilience building ideas • Applying RT to an organization’s strategic plan • Testing RT as a framework to evaluate a Telephone Helpline • Understanding Resilience – workshop for local authority children’s workforce delivered by service users • Applying RT in group work with LGBT young people • Linking resilience and the Common Assessment Framework tool • RT & Cognitive Behaviour groupwork with women refugees

19. East Sussex CoP products • Foster parents applying RT in their work with ‘looked after children’ • ‘Pick ‘n’ mix’ box of resilience ideas to help client identify their own goals and a plan of action which provides a visual means of evaluating progress • Tool box to use with young men’s group: each tool engraved to include resilient ideas as a prompt for discussion • Incorporating RT into parent support course • Evaluation tool to measure resilient outcomes that incorporates young people’s views about their progress or positive change

20. East Sussex CoP products • Creating a range of different games: Magic box + questionnaire to be used over series of sessions with young person to chart progress Children's game using body maps and a series of exploratory questions Board game to assist young people to identify their own resilient qualities and those around who can be enlisted to help them • Organisational Review of Young People’s Pathway Plan, adding a stronger resilience emphasis to review young person’s progress

21. Challenges • Need a budget • So hard to get folk to read even though they kept turning up • Insufficient challenge for academics • Raising questions without answers • Getting beyond the superficial • Sensitivities might need to be held

22. Positives • Sets up relationships for the future • Built confidence of many – now training, doing more with their organisations • Developed knowledge base for some • Further developed RT • Cross fertilisation between members

23. CoPs over time… • Accumulate knowledge and become bound by the value they find in learning about resilience and RT together • Develop a unique perspective on RT as well as a body of common knowledge, practices and approaches (eg tools, standards, manuals, materials) • Develop personal relationships and established ways of interacting with each other • Encourage inclusion by making connections and consolidating learning across potential lines of division in relation to joint enterprise • Cross boundaries which causes people to look afresh at their own assumptions, facilitated by creation of ‘boundary objects’ - eg language, artefacts and ‘brokering’ - eg linking differing perspectives.