Yesterday Stefan and I met with Katherine, a Mental Health Promotions Officer from Orygen, who was incredibly helpful.
Katherine was able to both answer and ask a lot of questions about how we planned to manage possible risks and issues in a positive way, including;
- Consent forms.
- Avoiding the use of umbrella terms(such as Asperger's) which may not be in use in the coming few years. Instead we need to concentrate on defining specific traits of people we with to help(for example, particularly narrow interests, adept with technology).
- How we should separate the identity of any research or funding project from the identity of the venue the kids attend.
- Caring for the mentors and what kind of support we will need.
- Looking at similar organisations for 'protocols' which can be followed when 'stuff' happens.
- Resources we use for more support, including Smart Company, Oxfam Skillshare, and pro bono possibilities.
- Resources where we can find more information, including details for the Western Autistic School, and a couple of great PDFs from the National Mentoring Alliance and Victorian Youth Mentoring Alliance on Mentoring Program Development and A Guide to Effective Mentoring Practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment