Mission: Operation Young Ones

hmm.. after a while, finally received the mission from our co-ordinator... deep in side my heart, know this round, the ALS members will need to work together as team, to achieve it. hope it will be in time.

Mission Code Name: Operation Young Ones

The scenario
You are group of Creative Arts Therapy Groupworkers that has been invited by the Department of Social, Family and Welfare Services to submit a proposal for project utlising creative arts therapeutic groups that will address the emotional, social and psychological needs of adolescents confronted by the challenges of modern society. The department recognises that there are potentially a number of vulnerable youths in various sections of the society that could benefit from what you could offer in providing them with the opportunity of developing their personal resources in managing such demands and complexities. The state will award a sum of monies to successful bids to spearhead such initiatives as part of its national mental health campaign for young adults.

Your proposal will contain an outline of your chosen target group, the aims and objectives of such an initiative, its intended outcomes and a detailed plan of how your group intend to implement such an initiative. The plan will contain your groups rationale in making a case for the chosen target group, your resource requirement in terms of venue, equipment, materials etc, the criteria of group membership selection, the size, gender mix, age range of the group membership, your decision on whether it will be a ‘closed’ or ‘open’ group, the number of sessions, marketing strategy of who, where and how you will be recruiting for the groupwork project, the duration of each session, roles of co-facilitators, the consent forms, what assessment methods or tools will be employed and how will you be assessing and evaluating the individuals, the group as a whole and the creative medium employed, all the sessions planned (use the documentation framework provided) to include session aims, session objectives, planned activities for Warm-up, Main Development and Closure, highlighting the intended objectives it will meet in each chosen activity that is planned, the group ‘ground rules’ that will be negotiated that will potentially facilitate and enhance the group development and group process.

You will deem to have accomplished your mission when your group has
Produce a proposal with a detailed plan of how you intend to deliver your creative groupwork to the chosen target group of adolescents. You are invited to submit your proposal using a mix media presentation of your choice to the chair of the panel. There will be Q & A session after the presentation to assess its coherency and viability. Some areas for the detailed plan need to provide evidence in relation to the possible areas below

• Is the rationale for the decisions as to the chosen target group well articulated?
• Is the decision for the size, mix, duration, etc supported by well-reasoned arguments?
• Are the aims, objectives realistic for the duration planned and specific enough to be able to observe or measure meaningfully?
• Does the session aims take into account of the group development needs?
• Are the warm-up, main development and closure activities related to the aims it hoped to achieve and is there a progressive and relevant link between the three developmental phases of warm-up, main activity and closure within the session itself?
• Are provisions made to possible cultural, social, developmental, emotional and cognitive uniqueness specific to the group and its participants?
• A flyer or leaflet for the group with details of what it is, and its associated information.
  

The deadline for this mission is 14th October 2009.
Good luck!

PS: Document your process, the learning gained through self-reflections in your blogs as you undertake this mission.