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Facilitators
Focus Group
"How
accountable am I? I always wonder: am I doing what I should be doing?
Is my focus person's life full? Am I serving the family well?"
Facilitator
Key Issues
(What
facilitators want the social audit to measure)
- Clear Expectations
- Effects of
Growth
- Communication
Dialogue
- Clear
expectations
When
asked what three words or phrases come to mind, facilitators spoke
about "joy, a sense of happiness, friendship building and
celebration."
They also shared words like inspirational and progressive.
Some noted
"frustration at times, slow and steady work, a need to be organized,
lots of
phone calls and self-exploration." While a sense of freedom
in the job was
identified as both important and appreciated facilitators reported,
"hidden expectations" by families as challenging.
Finding network members,
developing relationships with limited time due to direct billing
and comfort
with billing were all areas of concern. When asked to describe the
relationship
with the family the responses were mixed with "open and
trusting" to "need to
have expectations clearly laid out." Family dynamics required
sensitivity as the family vision for a network may differ from the
person at the centre's vision. Facilitators also pointed out "it
takes a year to get to know a family", again
referring to the slow work of network building.
- Effects
of growth
Facilitators
talked about growth and its impact on the organization, on the
people at the centre of networks and on facilitators. PLAN's "hierarchy"
was identified as getting steeper and burnout was mentioned as a
possible outcome
to rapid growth. One facilitator commented "PLAN is growing rapidly,
but
cautiously to make sure values are at the core". When asked
if PLAN is living
its values the overall consensus was "they are always spoken
and modeled" "People are at the centre and we know it."
PLAN was also identified as building community beyond PLAN.
Everyone agreed they would recommend PLAN to a friend as a place
to work citing good pay, rewarding work and flexibility.
- Communication
Facilitators
agreed they always feel comfortable sharing problems and
challenges with their mentors and PLAN. There was an overall feeling
of pride,
being valued and professional. A facilitator spoke of the role of
the facilitator
requiring a degree of self-examination. "Am I doing what
I should be doing,
is my focus person's life full, am I serving the family well?"
The need to have expectations clearly laid out was important.
"Family's vision of network may
differ from person at the centre of the network." It was suggested
annual
performance reviews might be helpful for facilitators.
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