Thrive has made some big changes to how we deliver our services in recent weeks in light of the Coronavirus pandemic and we wanted to let our members know the measures we have put in place to continue delivering our training and to support the wider community at this challenging time.
The team have worked tirelessly to reshape our Childhood Licensed Practitioner, Senior Leaders and Family Thrive courses so that they can be largely delivered via webinars and e-learning, with face-to-face teaching days scheduled for the autumn when social distancing protocols are likely to have been relaxed. Our trainers have been upskilled to deliver more course content online and our resources have been repurposed to reflect this. This means that our community of Thrive Practitioners can continue to develop their skills.
We know that our Practitioners are doing amazing work to stay connected to their students, despite the physical distance between them. Our Relationship Managers are supporting Practitioners by phone and online to help them adjust to providing support and encouragement using technology, rather than face-to-face. In addition, they are drawing up weekly schedules of activities that parents can use to support children in adventurous and creative play to help develop their ability to overcome safe challenges and experience new things – key features of healthy emotional development. Different weekly activities are being given for children aged up to 7, up to 11 and up to 16.
We have also launched a new Facebook page called The Thrive Approach – supporting the community to weather the storm which already has more than 2,100 members. As well as posting the Thrive weekly activity schedules here, members are sharing different resources and tips that they have found helpful to keep children entertained in a challenging, creative and safe way. This is an amazing source of inspiration and support for parents and educators who, we know, are working hard to keep children happy, healthy and engaged with life during this challenging time.
We are also working to make our Forging New Connections conferences available via webinar, working with our keynote speakers Dr Kim Golding, Dr Suzanne Zeedyk and Dr Jack Lewis to make sure that our delegates can enjoy their presentations online, with the opportunity for Q&A webinars afterwards. We will be in touch with delegates in due course to confirm details of how this will work.
With the disruption to routines, worries about income and health and the loss of physical contact with friends, family and support networks, we believe that children and young people need the Thrive Approach now, more than ever. And we believe that when schools re-open this need for additional support will continue as our young people re-adjust to normality.
We may not be able to see you all face-to-face right now but we would like everyone in our Thrive community to know that we are here to support you in the work you are doing with your children and young people and that this will continue for as long as it takes to get back to normal. Please share details of our Facebook page with parents and others in your network and let us know if you have any questions or need additional support – we’re here to help you.