Interested in becoming a peer educator?

Did you know it is illegal to give your donkey a bath after 7pm in Alabama? This was one of the many things we discovered throughout our ‘Think Resilient' Basic Training Weekend where a mix of 25 Rangers, Young Leaders and Leaders came together at the Willow Tree Centre to become Peer Educators.

Our weekend was full of fun, despite the many challenges that we had to face. For example, walking into a room full of people we had never met before, knowing you are spending the next three days with these ‘strangers’ can be really daunting, but when you are greeted with so many smiling faces and have Girlguiding as a common interest it is easier to find your feet. For a lot of us this was our first experience of peer education and we really did not know what to expect, but just like in peer education sessions we started off with some group guidelines to set the tone.

During the weekend, we learnt many skills that would help us through our future peer education sessions. We learnt skills such as transactional analysis, building resilience, dealing with challenging behaviour and how to successfully run a peer education session. We also practised public speaking throughout the entire weekend which is essential when giving clear instructions while running peer education sessions.

The team who put this weekend together did an incredible job. Abiee, Emma, Vicky and Beth planned and ran most of the sessions throughout the weekend and showed us what it really meant to be great peer educators. They helped us settle in by starting the weekend off with some get-to-know-you games - the team made us feel welcome and comfortable which really helped us bond with one another, making the first night less awkward and little did we know how close we'd become over the next two days!

To help us learn the skills we would need to become successful peer educators, we took part in a series of fun activities. We all wrote instructions on how to make jam sandwiches which were then followed very literally - it is quite hard to make edible jam sandwiches when the bread is still in the bag! We also learnt how to manage challenging behaviour through a range of scenarios which made us think about and discuss ways to deal with them. However, this was explained through a relay race where we had to roll a dice and run to find the scenario that corresponded to that number, then tell one of the trainers how we would deal with it. This was made extra challenging as the wind kept blowing away the scenarios!

On Sunday, Kate Fawell-Comley (the Assistant Chief Commissioner for LaSER) joined us to share her experience of peer education and how it has supported her through Girlguiding and in her line of work. Not only was her story empowering but it was also very inspiring to hear about her peer education experience and the challenges she faces daily. Kate’s talk motivated us and gave us a much clearer intention of what becoming a peer educator really means, not just within Girlguiding.

By the end of the weekend, we had practised running sessions and activities for each other in small groups, so that we felt confident to deliver sessions in the future. We had also made friends with whom we would stay in contact with after the event, despite the fact that many of us had arrived very nervous about not knowing anybody. After some peer and self-evaluation (and a shiny new peer ed booklet and T-shirt) we left the weekend keen to sign up for another topic training and ready to begin our Peer education journey.

Now onto our favourite parts of the weekend. Although it has been hard to choose, we have narrowed it down to three. Firstly, the food was AMAZING!! Our personal favourite has to be the waffles and endless supply of biscuits and squash throughout the day (just like any other Girlguiding event!). The evening quiz showed our competitive sides and was a fun way to unwind after a full day of laughs and training (and spending too much money in the badge shop). Ultimately, our favourite part was the people. The Team running the weekend were all lovely and their badge blankets were very impressive! Many of us arrived not knowing anyone but immediately made friends of different ages and counties and we were sad for it all to come to an end.

We want to say a big thank you to Jenni and Alice who spent most of the weekend preparing the most amazing meals ever, each mealtime brought us together and the smells coming from the kitchen really helped those who struggled to get out of bed early in the morning! This weekend would not have happened without the amazing support from Vicky who not only put this weekend into action but also took the lead on it all. She put so much hard work into making this weekend memorable we can’t begin to imagine how much planning this took. She also created an extraordinary quiz for us to enjoy on Saturday night, and the anagrams we had to complete really made us think! Can you work this one out? RECOUPED IN TEA.

Thank you again to all who helped make this weekend happen, especially those working behind the scenes! This is definitely an experience we will not forget! We cannot wait to take part in the next topic training to further develop our journey through peer education.

‘The WORMS’

(Lily, Anny, Sophie, Izzy, Ciara, Maya, Harriet, Manchari and Katie)