Last Updated on 01/08/2024
NOTE: This project was previously know as Community Engagement Project for 2021 and 2022 cohorts
Overview
At the start of their first year of training, each trainee will be allocated an area of the North West to engage with. Although the location of the trainee’s living base will be considered, the decision of which community to assign will be based on other factors too. These factors include, but are not limited to, ensuring rural and urban areas are visited and ensuring not all the work is done in the main living bases of Manchester, Liverpool, and Lancaster. Trainees will be able to give 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order preferences of which areas they might want to go to.
During the induction period (October- December) trainees, in groups of 6 or 7, will be asked to spend time getting to know their assigned area. This will entail researching the area by, for example, using the internet, local libraries, local historians and/or local members of the communities. It will also mean just spending time in the community: sit in cafes, walk around the town/city. Who do you see? What do you notice?
It may also entail visiting third sector organisations, including faith groups, schools, foodbanks, charities, across the community. Trainees will not engage in any psychological therapy, or any work that could be defined as within a Clinical Psychologists therapeutic job role.
Trainees may choose, to focus on a particular group in an area. For example, they may think about the local history and culture and how these influences different genders in the community, or how it influences a certain religious group, race, or age group. Others may choose to think about how history and culture influences more generally.
Trainees may choose to work outside their usual working hours (9am- 5pm) but will not be expected to, nor will they be expected to work more than 7.5 hours in a day.
Aims
- For trainees to research, witness, observe, and experience an area of the Northwest.
- For trainees to reflect on how the local history and culture(s) influence modern day lives.
- For trainees to experience reaching out to local community members, and the importance of connections with people and services beyond NHS
- For trainees to spend time with members of their cohort in a more informal and less structured way to better relationships between members of the cohort.
Reflective Group
The group of trainees will meet with an allocated group clinical tutor for 90 minutes fortnightly. This will be a chance to check in about how the work is going, reflect on experiences and ask any questions. Due to the working patterns of staff, this may be on the designated community engagement day, or it may be on a study day (for both FT and PT trainees) the week of the community engagement.
Some ideas that the group may wish to think about:
- How do they want to split up to visit different places/organisations?
- What happens if they cannot visit in person (Teams/ phone calls/ online research)
- What communities are we all from? How does the project relate to us, and the communities we come from? Use the wheel of oppression to facilitate this conversation. Tutors to get involved with the conversation too.
- Explicit about light tough, not evaluated, just have conversations!
Output
Trainees will be asked to keep an individual reflective diary that documents their experiences with the organisations. They may be asked to refer to this in reflective sessions.
Trainees will also display what they have found at a North West Reflection Day in December. Trainees will be encouraged to be creative in how they display their findings. This will not be presentation via PowerPoint or delivering a presentation of any kind. Each group will just be given an area to display ideas, and the cohort will spend time circulating around the different groups.
North West Reflection Day
There will be a North West Reflection Day where the trainees will present their ‘findings’ to the rest of the cohort. This will be in the format of a poster, or other creative way that the group thinks captures their experience. The day will also include reflective exercises, facilitated by course staff.