Teamshot Challenge Day
Chesterfield and Buxton
In February 2009, young people at our Chesterfield & Buxton Projects took part in a Teamshot Challenge Day!
The purpose of the day was to provide young people with an experience which took them away from their usual environment; offered them a day to work together, meet new people, and to work in a very different way than they may ever have done before.
The day was fun, challenging and had group tasks homing in on individual change, identifying values of importance and creating an ability to make change. 8 young people, aged 16 – 20, took part in the day: Kelly, Charlotte, Tanya, Damian, Josh, Ryan, Ellie and Matt, along with 4 staff.
Warm up activities included the amazing feat of lifting one person off their chair with those lifting using just their fingers and some of the young people agreeing to fall backwards off a table onto the outstretched arms of the other young people!
The group then split into two smaller groups to try and work out group challenges. There were a number of challenges which included moving all members across the room, using just one set of giant skis and in silence! Amazingly, the group quickly learnt to work well together and, after a few false starts, managed to cover the distance, gracefully and – more importantly – in tandem!
The young people were very impressive. They all got stuck in and could see the messages the challenges illustrated. The afternoon session really pushed us all to work in a very different way! It focused on getting us to appreciate the power of our minds and our ability to take positive control over our lives and choices.
All of the young people, and staff, were very positive about the day. We all took different things away from the experience.
To quote some of the young people:
“I enjoyed working as part of a team”.
“I enjoyed meeting new people; the team building skills, and learning how to focus and talk to people”.
“I found in myself more confidence. I didn’t shy away and got to make new friends”.
“I achieved a lot. I gained a new level of understanding not just for myself but others as well”.
“It made me feel overwhelmed and amazing. It was really top!”.
“Part of it made me feel emotional and at times I realised I have no one. I enjoyed the team exercises and getting out of my flat. It made me feel that I need to trust people more”.
I really feel that this sort of day has a huge potential to develop working relationships between staff and Service users, and to help the young people kick-start their own personal change, which can be built upon and developed through our Support Planning process.
Susan Wolton -Area Manager
