Overview: Level One
Introduction to YouthNet and TheSite.org
We look at how YouthNet and TheSite.org started and how they have evolved and developed askTheSite. In particular, we look at how young people have told us they need information and support online. Where did the idea of online peer advisors originate? We look at the skills involved in volunteering answering relationships questions on askTheSite.
Introduction to providing emotional support
Online communication can often seem distant and impersonal. It's typical for young people to come to askTheSite's relationships section looking for emotional support, not just specific information or advice. By offering emotional support carefully and sensibly, advisors can make their answers have much more impact and give young people the sense that they are receiving an individual response.
Introduction to communicating effectively
It's difficult communicating with a young person who you do not know and can not talk with. While confidentiality affords the user to askTheSite a certain degree of security, it also makes communicating with them challenging. For this reason, it is critical that the way advisors write their information does not create any more barriers to understanding. The bottom line is that to maximise the effectiveness of the communication of answers, the tone must be positive and the message clear.
Introduction to offering options and answering questions
askTheSite aims to produce answers for young people that are balanced, objective and offer a range of options. However, to do this well each advisor needs to exercise their own judgement about how they respond to each users' feelings and issues. To come to these judgements it helps to think methodically about what the challenges are that each user is facing and where they need to get to to be able to resolve them.
Overview: Level Two
Researching for answers on askTheSite
Researching answers is fundamental to working in advice and guidance. It's important for fact checking and thinking through the practical options and next steps that a user may have available to them. As a relationships advisor you will inevitably be asked about issues that are new to you- especially in the beginning. Research is a way that all advisors can bridge that gap.
Online research tools
As an online peer advisor there will be various online tools available to you to help you with your researching task. We will look at three possible ways you can research. Our in-house online database of links to resources and organisations (the agony bible), UK Advice Finder, a database of over 13,000 local advice organisations across the UK, and also we look at how to take full advantage of internet search engines such as Google.
Boundaries (ethical, legal and service remit)
Finding your feet in the role as an online peer advisor means understanding the boundaries within which you are working. It means being aware of the legal framework underpinning askTheSite's pledge to safeguard the confidentiality of young people asking questions. It also means being conscious of your own personal limits and how your feelings about different issues can affect how you answer them. Finally, it also means understanding the remit of askTheSite's relationships section and when the relationships advisors may not be best placed to provide the answer to a question.
Writing an answer plan supported by research
We will give you the opportunity to pull together you own answer plan for a question as part of a group with other trainee online peer advisors. You need to decide together on an effective approach and potential online resources that could help support your answer.
Overview: Level Three
What are relationships?
We look at the life cycle of a romantic relationship from the moment of attraction right through to the decision to make a commitment and beyond. We explore different ways of getting a handle of where a couple are at in terms of how they look out for each other. Are they still at a point where they are looking out for their own interests or are they able to reciprocate? Are they helping each other conditionally (if you help me, I'll help you)? Or are they helping each other without a thought to what they will get back in return?
What needs does each person have in their relationship?
It can be really helpful as an advisor to break down what needs a relationship is currently fulfilling and which it isn't. For example, is the user too dependent on their need for safety and security to go out and take on challenges and risks that could energise themselves and their relationship? Is the user so in love and scared of losing a close intimate connection that they put up with be made to feel inadequate and insignificant? We try to analyse different scenarios as depicted by users in their questions in terms of how the relationship is enabling them to fulfill the folllowing basic human needs: security, variety, love and significance.
Building up a picture of the user
Knowing where to start with answering a question can be difficult. Looking at a question on different levels can help you break a question down and think about how you want to structure your response.
- Identity - Who am I to be? [Who?]
- Beliefs and Values - What are my beliefs and values? [Why?]
- Capability and Skills - What am I capable of doing/achieving? [How?]
- Behaviour - What am I doing? [What?]
- Environment - What's the surrounding context for this? [Where? When? Whom?]
How questions are answered on askTheSite
In this section of the day we go over the process in more detail of how questions get answered across askTheSite. We talk about who is involved and how they are involved. In particular, we look at the askTheSite shift rota and explain how you'll be supported by a freelance relationships advisor on askTheSite when you begin volunteering.
Introduction to askTheSite content management system (Polopoly) - the online system we use to answer questions on askTheSite
This is a workshop where we run through the software behind askTheSite's content management system. This is an opportunity to familiarise yourself with it and run through what you'll need to do online to answer questions when you go on shift.
|
|
