I have spent last two days training with a charity called Save the Children which is delivering with Middlesex University London programme called FAST ( Families & Schools TOGETHER) for primary.
The first five minutes of my training made me think :
- Wow! This really make sense!
I will not throw all of the details at you right now, but there was a lot of talk about Pruning Neurons , Immune system, cortisol, DHEA, Serotonin, Dopamine, researches done by Salvador Minuchin, Paulo Freire, Urie Bronfenbrenner. There was also attachment theory involved and all of that was researched, adapted and put together, to help families. Isn't that amazing?
It is making me feel good about myself. Not only I get to help peopel, which was the whole reason behind studying Psychology! But, I can also adapt this programme within my family, to improve our life!!!
It was two very long days, but I can say with a hand on my heart : It was worth it.
This training was only the first step, now our FAST TEAM will have very busy two weeks, preparing letters, flyers, sending text to parents, trying to recruit 40 families.
After that we will have 8 weeks, ending with ( hopefully) huge success!!!
FAST was developed in 1988 by Dr. Lynn McDonald, Family Service, Madison, Wisconsin and enhanced with Ms. Estella Payton in 1989.
What is FAST all about???
There are three types of partners:
School Partner - obviously person who works in school
Parent Partner - one of the parents who has a child in a FAST school
Community Partner ( like me) - person within community who wants to be involved. Mainly there were people from council, Plant Dewi Parenting, police. I had a privileged to be a community Partner, because I am studying Psychology and my my boss is organising FAST in our primary school! Again, how lucky am I?!
Goals of FAST for Primary:
Intermediate Goals :
Goals that increase protective factors:
1. Parent Strength
- Feels respected
- feels empowered
- feels supported
- feels more confident
2. Parent Involvement
with Child ( Special Play)
with Intimate Support ( Buddy Time)
with other Parents ( Self-Help Group and FASTWORKS)
with Schools
with Community Activities & Resources
Goals that reduce risk factors:
3. Reduces Stresses f Daily Living
4. Reduces Substance Abuse in Child and Family
5. Reduces Chronic Family Conflict
Ultimate goal: Better Child Outcomes in Home, School, Community:
Child doing better at home
Child higher self-esteem
Child doing better in school
Child More positive about school
Child better relationship with parent
Whoever thinks it's amazing, please put your hand up! For all of those who would like to know more you can go to : www.familiesandschoolstogether.com
I can not express how excited I am!
I just wanted to thank everyone for your emails! It is making me feel so good, when I am coming home and there is inbox full of positive thoughts, comments and questions! It is making me feel really good, knowing that I am helping some of you, that you find my blog useful or funny and you all are so welcoming!!! I will try to answer to all of your emails as soon as possible, so please bare with me! As you can see I am very busy doing as much as I can with different programs, so sometimes I am coming home and literally falling asleep on the sofa after quick dinner. Bless my partner he doesn't have a heart to wake me up, because he knows that I will not be able to go back to sleep, so he is carrying me upstairs nearly every night!!! I don't think I would be able to do half as much, regarding my degree without his support! I know that he can't read this but I still want to say it : Thank you hun! Love you loads really, even when I am cranky... :)
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