Training people with disabilities for employment HORticulture GArdening learNIng spaCes

Training people with disabilities for employment HORticulture GArdening learNIng spaCes Authors Galabina Tarashoeva, Bulgaria (Mental Health Centre Professor Nikola Shipkovenski) Hartmut Haendeler, Roland Roehner and Gesa Schiller, Germany (CJD Frechen)

As the trees, persons grow and change constantly, even if one does not realize about it.

Learning new things can help growing in the right way, making the best of ourselves, looking at the sky, looking at bigger challenges. Learning is an excellent empowerment tool, especially for those at risk of social exclusion e.g. people with mental health problems.

HORGANIC is a seed in which a group of organizations formed in hopes to improve the quality of life of those experiencing mental health issues. This seed was sowed in 2012 and has grown and become a learning experience.

Being active, being a productive part of our society, collaborate with other people, being a better citizen… this is something that all of us need but also something that is not so easy to achieve for everybody. Training opportunities for adults with mental illness are very few in Europe and HORGANIC tries to fill this gap thanks to the positive influence of gardening and direct contact with nature. It is proven that activities related to plants and nature have revealed especially beneficial for people with mental disabilities and we want to take advantage of this fact.

A 3-year initiative run by the Spanish INTRAS Foundation in co-operation with other charitable organizations: German CJD, Slovenian OZARA and Bulgarian Mental Health Centre “Prof. N. Shipkovenski”, the HORGANIC project, co-funded by the European Commission (Lifelong Long Learning Programme), believes in the harmony with nature, in the equal opportunities for everybody and especially, in lifelong learning as an empowering tool. That was the origin of the HORGANIC training course and now it can be said that goals were achieved: establish an innovative training methodology based on experiential learning to enable adults with mental issues acquire technical skills on gardening and horticulture while developing work related social skills.

The curriculum plan for the contents to be taught was created by the German partner – the vocational training centre CJD Frechen. As a vocational training centre CJDs main aim are to support people in their access to the first labour market. Accordingly CJD looks for new innovative options to equip the trainees in the best way to find access and persist in the first labour market. One of the apprenticeships is a vocational training in gardening, consisting of professional practical and theoretical competences. The elements concerning gardening were adapted to the circumstances in the project and included in the HORGANIC training course. 81 sessions formed the frame of the curriculum, giving useful background information on how to perform them, hints regarding weather conditions and further information which might be interesting, as receipts for the harvested vegetables or historical events connected to the vegetables.

The units for the trainers include next to the structure of the day and background information some hints where to put the focus on, e.g. which tasks contain the risk of injuries. The issues dealt include varying topics of gardening, e.g. as the basics in botany, the occupational safety, tools in gardening, the different kinds of seeds and garden mould, how to build a birds nest box or a potato crate, the promotion of beneficiary animals and how to detect plants diseases.

It furthermore went through a variety of vegetables to be sowed, planted, pricked out, harvested and how to prepare them to eat. The units therefore combine several practical exercises who promote skills e.g. in constructing and working with a hammer and a saw on one hand as well as working very cautious with little plants which are easy to damage on the other hand.

But why is HORGANIC’s training so innovative? Apart from gardening sessions planned twice a week, once a week participants attend experiential methodology training – psychodrama and sociodrama exercises, together with role playing helped them to acquire personal and social skills needed at work. The experiential learning methodology was created by the Bulgarian Mental Health Centre (MHC) “Prof. N. Shipkovenski”.

The main aim of the experiential methodology is to improve the social skills of participants, to support them during their vocational training and entering the labour market, and to motivate them to continue life-long learning and self - development. The length of the experiential methodology course is 37 sessions, 90 minutes each. During each session attention should be paid to group dynamics. The objective is to make the participants share their experiences and problems arising during the gardening class and to work with them.

Experiential methodology and curriculum are taught in a coordinated way. Both gardening and experiential learning trainers have to take part together in the two kinds of the training sessions, all the time with the participants.

The experiential methodology is presented through a variety of techniques, exercises, games, role playing, action sociometry, clearly described (in terms of objectives and execution). The described lessons give idea, topic and basic structure, but they are flexible for adaptation to the different needs and resources of different participants in the groups. The methodology also promotes openness towards other people and cultures.

Basic knowledge about psychodrama elements, stages and techniques, role playing and sociometry are given in the introduction of the manual. The trainers from INTRAS, OZARA and CJD were trained by MHC “Prof. N. Shipkovenski” to apply the new methodology in special training for trainers. Later on during the pilot application of methodology the work of the trainers were supervised by MHC “Prof. N. Shipkovenski” directly in thy supervisory visits, and indirectly, reviewing session reports and giving written feedback. This from one side improved skills of the trainers, from another side brought additions and corrections in the experiential learning sessions.

The innovative idea to combine these fields is based on the results of a study conducted in 2010, which detected that besides professionalism employers unconditionally expect the following soft skills: readiness for action, sense of responsibility, communicational skills and team spirit, resilience and motivation. So training cannot be “just” teaching professional theoretical and practical knowledge and abilities as in the modern times it is not enough to be professional to get and retain a job. Trainees have to be taught in both how to be professional in the working field and how to communicate, cooperate, express and receive criticism in the right way.

So developing a supporting system which covers all needs for the participant to stand the labour market means trial and error. During the HORGANIC project the mixture of psychodrama and gardening training was implemented trial and success can be confirmed.

During the pilot training in three countries it was discovered that the trainees learn and work much more efficiently if they have a space exclusively for their personal development. A trainer who has implemented the HORGANIC course in its organization describes the

experiences as following “The methodology is highly effective, because by being structured it brings clarity and simplicity for both, instructors and participants, facilitating the implementation and understanding for both parties. Also, being practical keeps them interested and motivated people, preferring leisure activities. Furthermore, the fact that has clear objectives to focus on the work and provide the professional point of view so that these objectives are met more effectively. Finally, the progressive character, in the sense of the general to the specific, allows participants to go slowly expressing their emotions and see the changes gradually.”

To be able to compare the results in an easier way and to detect the needs of the target group a survey at the beginning of the HORGANIC project in Spain, Germany and Slovenia among 107 people suffering from various mental disabilities. The key problem areas for people with mental illness were identified and came out identically with the results of the study concerning the expectations of employers in general. Additionally, the HORGANIC study showed that people with mental illness have a special need to establish their self-esteem. The HORGANIC training program was constructed to address these professional challenges: 1. Working in a group.

The study conducted that the area of communication, socialization and co-operation with colleagues at work is certainly problematic for many respondents. 16 % of respondents need support in the area of working with other people. One can presume that this results from general problems with communication with others. Developing social skills in this area is essential to opening vocational opportunities to this group of mentally ill people. The percent of people who don’t have, or are not very sure that they have supporting surrounding is 23 %.

The HORGANIC course tackled these problems and it could be noticed how group games and exercises helped to integrate the trainees during the pilot workshops. One of the trainees confessed after the completion of the course “The people have been very united and mixed well within the group. Also I liked that it was a place that could expose some feelings in new situations that previously they could not express. Finally, I liked learning how to meet new people and making new friends.” We focused on the meaning of cooperation, which is also an important pre-condition for group work. Equally important are also skills for guidance and following. In the groups we noticed that almost everyone wishes to follow, rather than guide, although there are individuals, that in an undefined situation some participants started guiding sub-consciously. The trainers often observed an important change also in support that they give one another, “which was not done at the beginning.” Along the months group members had developed more skills related to team-working: conflict management, responsibility, friendship, social skills related to a team gardening… In fact, the participants are very different between them (culture level, illnesses, live experiences…) although they could go on with the session without any big problems.

All of them assumed their role and they recognized their importance within the group when they have to achieve an aim for the whole group. In this way, the participants recognized the importance of their job in the daily life and they understood that if it is hard to achieve any aim for the group, they have to cooperate.

2. Verbal skills According to the results of the conducted study the necessity of developing verbal and communication skills of the target group is also shown. What is worrying is the number of respondents who don’t talk, and who are not very sure that they could talk about themselves and their skills – 61%, which signalizes serious problems. 25 % of the respondents are not interesting and 30 % are not sure that they are interesting from the other people, which means that they live in their closed own life.

One of the trainers describes it as following: “…it has been possible to motivate participants to express their feelings and the importance of them when relating to others and in a work environment.” Another trainer shared: “Already the fact that they started to think about their emotions is helpful to them. But the fact that they speak out, even very relaxed, is almost a miracle.” Yes, it is miracle! Their deficits are partly because of their illness, but they became much bigger because of their difficulties during the life. With constant careful efforts and support, even with small steps they could improve their verbal skills. The groups slowly getting better and they manage to speak more easily. In any case, they are gaining experiences with exposing themselves and their thoughts. Some of those introverted participants have difficulties in getting relaxed, but with the support of the group they slowly progress. A capability to express one’s own opinion is always very important and handy in everyday life, and the HORGANIC experience definitely helps them in this direction.

3. Personal motivation The study further conducted that the area of work capacity shows that the percent of people who are not sure if they can do a job well together with those who don’t see themselves as good workers come to 26 %, which is a worrying sign. Personal motivation needs to be strengthened amongst the target group. Altogether 20 % respondents are not really motivated to achieve what they want.

The participants were very motivated and committed to learn and to do exercises that they think that are good for them. They highlight that they have learnt new ways to act and that people is more respectful with them now. It was important and pleasant to the participants, to learn during the sessions, that they are good at doing something, and that they have positive personal characteristics, especially because during their lifetime they were often faced with criticism, bullying and contempt.

4. Self-esteem and self-belief The area of self-esteem and assertiveness shows lack of belief in oneself and own judgments, as 57 % of respondents can’t stand up to people and passively follow orders. It is interesting to notice that 56 % of respondents answered that they express their opinions at a work meeting.

Most of the participants were quite cooperative. Some, that are more quite, needed support.

Once encouraged with acknowledgement and positive reaction, they easier express their opinion. These activities definitely help the participants to improve their skills in expressing their opinion and encourage them in exposing themselves. They learnt more about the skills to say “No” when they have/want to say it. The most reserved in the group improve themselves in performance. We observed that the participants improved sense of their own value and gained self-esteem in exposing themselves in front of the group. Also they themselves say that they can notice difference and that when working in the group they can relax more than they did before. Once encouraged with acknowledgement and positive reaction, they easier express their opinion. The change in participants is seen – with some of them more, with some less.

But they definitely made progress in communication skills and in argumentation skills. We also see that they are more confident, not only to have a say in something but to take some action on their own lives.

5. Dealing with difficult (negative) feelings What is more worrying is that around 13% of the people with mental illness who took part in the survey have serious problems coping with their emotions and controlling them, and 23 % of the participants are not very sure they could control expression of their emotions. There is a need to give support to the target group in balancing (expression and controlling).

The participants liked very much the sessions about emotions. We have many reports from the trainers like this one “I can state with confidentiality that they have relaxed and when having a conversation they act using much more emotions than they did before. I got an impression that the participants emotionally empowered themselves and especially that they can speak about emotions freely than they did before. They learned more about how to express their feelings so I understand that they can use this wisdom in any part of their lives.

They have also learnt how to face daily problems and learn from them.”

This type of activities manage to encourage the participants, they like to know their emotions and work with them, so that they can face in a good way their daily problems and they increase their trust on themselves.

Participants from all the countries seem to be very satisfied with the results gained, “It was something completely new to me, an interesting experience! If there was a continuation of the HORGANIC training, I would again join as a trainee.”, “in my opinion it supported to work in teams as you get to know each other better through the work and furthermore, we could enhance our knowledge in gardening” or “What I liked most about the course was learning techniques and tasks to create and maintain a garden, for example, the transplanting. Also, I liked that by having this knowledge it allows me to be more autonomous” are just some of the positive quotes given by the trainees.

Also the trainers are summarizing their experiences in a very positive way: “In my opinion psychodrama trainings could be implemented also by kindergarten and school teachers, special pedagogues, social workers and perhaps even individual experts from other professional fields, especially for those individuals closely working with people. I believe that this kind of trainings would help improve quality of life of many. Although we speak about soft skills and expertise a lot, only few people actually know how to use them and implement them in their life.” Or another trainer says: “.A lot of books on gardening can be found, but none specialized to the target group. The project is having clear aims, including theoretical and practical knowledge and supports the group dynamic. Furthermore, the course underlines the connection between human being and nature and supports the team building.

The individual participants get challenged and the course produces moments of success”.

It is also important that the participants participated with pleasure and involvement in the sessions. After this activity, most of the participants were smiling and they were grateful for this time to learn that they are good people and that there are people who are caring for them and that they love them. Even though sometimes they talked about painful and sensitive topics, the sessions were developed successfully because we created an environment full of respect and where people listening each other’s. If you ask Zerka Moreno, the co-creator of Psychodrama, “How to use action methods to improve social skills?”, the answer would be “With love and respect to the person!”

The most important is, the participants have seen themselves as persons with rights that deserve respect. We believe that they were given a new perspective on the real world relationships, their own roles in it and how to deal with it.

HORGANIC's Teaching Manual and Trainees Textbook will be published in September 2015 in five languages: English, Spanish, Slovenian, German and Bulgarian. For more information, please visit the website http://HORGANIC.intras.es