Staff Training Enhances AP Staff Capacity

AP Staff: Lim, Makara, Socheat, Bopha, Cath, Lani,

Phat and Ya - excited to be working together and

enhancing their skills in staff training workshops.

The value of ‘Opportunity’ at AP is reinforced with the resident children on a regular basis, as we encourage the children to embrace the chance to reach their maximum potential. This however does not stop with the children, but extends to the staff and entire AP team as well.

To further enhance the staff capacity, the AP staff participated in a series of specially tailored training sessions created to further develop teamwork skills, self-care practices, focus on personal development, responsible care giving, and more. For the past 6 weeks the team has been working closely with Indigo, a counselling service in Phnom Penh that facilitated the extensive trainings. English psychologist Katrina Tickle and Khmer psychologist Sothearwat Sieng, who specializes in team building and group learning activities, led the sessions.

The sessions were creative and dynamic, and allowed the staff to spend quality time together while learning valuable skills. The staff appreciated the good mixture of group participation activities, brainstorming sessions, sharing of feelings and team building exercises that took place during the trainings.

Each session focused on a few key points, all of which pertained to enhancing the ability to care for the AP children with the highest quality care possible.

Some main points the training focused on were:

• The importance of self-care, personal development, and identifying staff needs
• Self supervision and learning to obtain support from the team
• Formal listening skills that can be used to support the children and each other
• How to identify a problem/behaviour within a child that requires professional assistance
• Formulating an action plan based around providing support for peers and children

The training program was an incredible success! The staff left each session feeling rejuvenated and confident with some new strategies to provide the children with the care, love, and support that they need, and the skills required to do so. We are thankful to Indigo for tailoring the program for us and helping us to become better caregivers.