Redditch News
New scheme to help young people help themselves
3:30pm Tuesday 7th February 2012
A NEW scheme is being introduced to girlguiding in Worcestershire to help young people teach each other about issues like eating disorders and bullying.
The In4mers initiative, trains senior section members from 14 to 25, and although it has been up and running in other areas of the UK for about 10 years, Redditch trained up its first In4mer, 16-year-old Katie Power-Wedgbury, only recently.
Katie said: “The trainers gave us information on how to plan, carry out and safeguard any sessions we would take on in the future. They delivered some example sessions to us to show us what its like, and then broke down some of the topics so we could then plan our own "mini session" with the other senior section members being trained and received feedback on how we could improve if it was for real. In addition, we each got a reference manual and a certificate to prove our qualification.”
The aim of the In4mers scheme is to provide help and advice for girl guides on important issues affecting them in a fun and informative way.
Katie added: “I think it greatly benefits all of girlguiding, and the scout association, because they have access to semi-professional education that's completely free. It also helps the people actually involved, like me, as it’s developed many of my skills and has given me a way to help my community.
“I always found my PSHE lessons quite boring, so I'm glad we finally have In4mers that can make them more interesting and hopefully make the information we give them sink in better.”
In4mer training is open to any youth organisation including scouts, guides, and youth groups, and leaders can get more information about the initiative by emailing rawin4mers@gmail.com.