Here at Life Links we run an accredited Open College Network Level 2 course for the volunteers of the service: Volunteer/Peer Mentor Learning Pathway. They learn about effective communication, boundaries, understanding personal biases, personal development and much more! We are happy to congratulate all our learners for passing the course and want to thank them for their commitment, engagement and sharing their own experiences. We went for Tapas at a local restaurant to celebrate the achievement which was not only delicious but a chance for us all to catch up! Overall, it was a great learning environment, an opportunity for volunteers to develop together and a well deserved qualification. Here are some of the experiences our learners shared with us…
Monika:
I enjoyed hugely hearing the stories from people who attended the course. Hearing other people’s stories whilst being able to share my own felt so healing. I also enjoyed and respected how we all can feel different about the same issue/thing, whilst respecting each other’s differences, which I feel made us all teach how our own stories are valid, no matter whether we experienced it ourselves or not. It was a unique and refreshing experience. The OCN course encouraged me to overcome stigma and feel comfortable in sharing my experiences. My overall experience was awesome. Shannon and Kaseem were absolutely awesome, and so were the other OCN course participants. I wish I could do more courses like that! I believe that learning about mental health is crucial, but I strongly believe we should learn more about ourselves first; OCN course gave us/me that opportunity. Thank you for letting me take part in the OCN course, I really appreciate it!
Jessica:
“The OCN training was a really helpful in my role to be a peer support group facilitator. Learning about professional boundaries and my style of approach helps me to support the group to my best ability. I liked learning about the unconscious biases as we all have them and it made me more aware of not having presumptions when working with clients. The training sessions were delivered excellently by staff. Overall I can use these skills in many of my roles as they are transferable skills.”
Anna:
Hi, I’m Anna and I’m currently a volunteer at Lifelinks. I started the volunteering training one week after my first shift on the information line. I was worried as I just started I would find it confusing and a bit too much, however I was completely wrong! The OCN qualification has taught me so much about how to work on the information line, peer support groups and volunteering with mental health charities in general. As a result, I believe I am giving my fullest potential while volunteering, which is essential being a mental health charity. Alongside my professional abilities developing through the training, the training gave me an opportunity to meet other volunteers at Lifelinks and hear about their experiences (which was really useful being a new volunteer). Thank you Shannon and Kaseem for the training opportunity, it has benefited me greatly!
