BIS #1542 SHELTER R&D CONDUCTS COUNSELLING WORKSHOP

Daskshayani Madangopal
MUMBAI, SEPTEMBER 10, 2009:
The R&D department of Shelter Don Bosco, Matunga conducted an animated Workshop for Social Workers as Counsellors on the September 9, 2009, for 18 Mumbai based NGOs working with children, youth, slum communities, commercial sex workers, domestic workers and those working with children in municipal schools. 40 participants from these various backgrounds attended a very effective, animated and interactive workshop.

The workshop was initiated by Fr. Barnabe D’Souza. The sessions were conducted by Prof. Tarana Pitawala of SNDT University and Director of Sinara Education and Career Counselling Insitute and Ms. Rupal Vador co-author of a Manual “Social Workers as Counsellors” by the R&D, published by Tejprasarini.

Prof. Pitawala got the group involved in practical nuances of counselling in their situations in the field. There were several sessions in getting the participants taking roles of the ‘counselled and counsellor,’ counselling skills in listening, rapport building, assessing the problem and goal setting, understanding the situation and responding accordingly.

Ms. Vador went through the Manual ‘Social Workers as Counsellors’ with the participants on how to use the manual in their settings. Each participant was given a copy of the manual. This prompted the participants to request for the other manuals of the R&D centre.

Fr. Barnabe introduced the FINO Savings cum identity card to the participants and gave them an opportunity to discuss it with their Directors to take it further for implementation in their organizations.

The Workshop ended with an announcement of a follow up workshop on October 10, 2009, in Maria Ashiana, Lonavla for the NGOs of Pune district on the same topic and a soon to be released (October) manual on ‘Eliciting People’s participation in Community Development’ a research based manual on Shelter Don Bosco’s experience of working for urban and rural communities.