Effectively Engaging and Serving Men in Social Services
Men distrustful of caseworkers and service providers. Male clients resistant to services in general, and at times particularly so when provided by women. Older male clients frustrated by younger workers. Men feeling disrespected by those trying to help them, believing they are not being treated fairly, and attributing the worst of intentions to the efforts of those trying to help.
The upshot is that men who need significant help and support are having difficulty receiving it from the very people most able and most interested in providing the support they need.
Guiding Light has been successfully engaging men involved with Oregon’s Child Welfare System since 2012, and through other organizations for many years prior.
Through half-day seminars, full-day workshops, and multi-day trainings tailored to the needs of your organization we work with social service providers to help them more effectively engage their maile clients, particularly their clients of color. For more information, please contact us.
Curriculum Development and Training
We would be happy to train your staff in aspects of our curriculum. Our curriculum can stand alone and/or readily augment your existing curriculum. Ours is a strength-based, skills-based curriculum with two primary components: Self-Control/Self-Discipline Training and Communication Training.
Workshops and Talks for Social Seravice Practitioners
- The M.O. Scale and The Evolution of Attitude:
The Theoretical Basis for Decoding, Predicting, and Changing Behavior Check out the book
- Reverse Integration: White Social Service Practitioners Effectively Building
Relationships With, and Serving Communities of Color Check out Dr. Klusky's book
- Fatigue and the Social Service Practitioner: Preventing and Recovering From Burn-Out
- Engaging Fathers: Increasing the Likelihood Fathers Will Take Advantage of Services.
Thanks so much for coming down and presenting for the group! I just wanted to let you know I was flagged down by one of our nurses who attended your presentation the other day with her entire family and she raved about how wonderful and valuable she
presentation was to her and her family!
Bruce Rodgers, Director
Workforce Management &
Leadership Development,
Salem Hospital
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Performing Under Duress
A Program Introducing Professionals to Tools They Can Use to Maintain Their Equilibrium Under Greater and Greater Stress
Careers that require people to engage with communities under stress can be some of the most challenging. Social service, security, teaching, juvenile justice are just a few such careers. Of the challenges these professionals face on a regular basis perhaps none is greater than the challenge of maintaining one's equilibrium under stress. The majority of social workers, security personnel, teachers, etc. have enough training and experience to be competent at their jobs – they know what to do in the vast majority of the situations in which they find themselves. That is, until they find themselves under more stress than they are prepared for. It is then that some, and at times much, of their training may desert them. For once one is significantly triggered, the dice begin to roll.
Sometimes things work out and other times – not so much. And when they don't, everyone can lose – the client, the professional, and sometimes the organization itself can be at risk.
It has been our experience that the dice do not have to roll nearly as much as they already do. The purpose of this program is to introduce professionals to tools they can use to maintain their equilibrium under greater and greater stress and so be able to apply their training over longer and longer periods of time. The result is a greater likelihood of de-escalating potentially dangerous situations or, even better, increasing the likelihood that situations do not escalate in the first place. When this is the result, everyone wins.