Activity: Is providing information enough? (Disc)
Time required: 45 minutes
Learning objectives: To distinguish who is able to take information and meet their needs with that information and for whom providing information is not enough.
Materials: None
Method:
- The trainer asks for 4 participants to role play the 2 scenarios below. In each scenario they need to evaluate whether providing information to a person is enough or if further support will be needed in addition to providing information. The need to see if in either of the two situations, the person is able to display hints of being able to use the information you provide to their advantage.
Scenario 1: A social facilitator is meeting with a young man who is interested in developing a CV to be able to apply for IT jobs in the city. The social facilitator wants to provide him with information on a youth centre that does career/job coaching including practicing for interviews and helping youth develop CVs. The young man seems excited, as you give him the details of the place and the application process, he is clarifying with you the location of the youth centre and if there is a fee to pay to get support there, he is also asking if there is a long wait list, what hours the centre is open and how big the centre is. He is reading over the information you are giving him and seems to listen very carefully to what you are saying.
[This man appears to be asking relevant questions and like he is going to follow-up on the information provided and go to the youth centre, he also seems to have a clear idea of what he wants and the ability to follow through, he seems enthusiastic and motivated. It is likely that providing him with information will be enough.]
Scenario 2: A young man comes to see you, he is bored with his life and not sure what he wants to do. He thinks he may be interested to get a job somewhere and would like to meet other young people. You provide him information on the youth centre. He nods, but does not respond with too much emotion, he does not ask for any more details about the place, he thanks you for the information you’ve given him on a piece of paper, but does not even look at the piece of paper you’ve given him and folds it up. He asks you if you can help him get some new crutches, you tell him there is a local DPO that provides this service. He nods his head but does not ask any more follow-up questions and says if you could get them for him from the DPO.
[The young man does not seem to know how to pursue community resources with the information you’ve provided. Maybe getting information is not enough and he also needs help with TAKING INITIATIVE to do something with the information.]
- After the role play, the trainer has participants sharing their observations of qualities they noticed showed either an ability to use information or a difficulty using information to meet needs.
They may be:
-Asking more questions related to the information provided
-Looking at the information provided
-Confirming information will be used and when
-Good listening skills while information is shared.
- The trainer asks: ‘’What happens if a person does not seem to be able to use the information you provided or seems generally confused about what they’d like to do ? What can you determine about the kind of support the person may need to use information?’’
-Is literacy an issue?
-Does the person understand the information provided?
-Do they need support planning what they can do with information?
-Do they need clarification on how the information will benefit them?
- The trainer summarizes and concludes that: “It is important that a social facilitator not only provides information to a person, but also sees if the person will be able to use the information or if some more support is needed and if a further interview for a social diagnosis is necessary and helpful. A social facilitator does not want to give unnecessary support. However the social facilitator should not assume that people are able to carry something out, as some may struggle with it, not being able to tell us about their difficulties.”
Shirin Kiani and Annie Lafrenière (Technical Resources Division)Page 1