Helping people also requires technique!
Following last year's Leader Development Class, the Charity Development Department has once again organised a six-lesson course tailor-made for the leaders of the home visit team, in hope of equipping them with ten useful competencies. By combining theory lessons with case studies, role-playing and games, it allowed volunteers to fully immerse themselves and learn. As such, it not only helped home visits serve as platforms to do good, but also provide a space for senior volunteers to recharge their batteries.
As hands are entangled in the trap and the other party comes to help, the volunteers are able to learn visiting skills.
Tzu Chi volunteer: The trapped people are the beneficiaries and the rescuers are the home visit volunteers. Maybe when both the trapped person and the rescuer are out of options, it is time to look for resources.
Combining theory with practical cases, role-playing and games, this is the home visit seminar for volunteers this year, with six lessons covering ten competencies that volunteers should possess, combined with online and offline interactive exchanges.
Staff of Charity Development Department, Tong Ler Yee: Since our main volunteers-in-charge are actually on the frontline and responsible for the casework, we expect that they will not just show surface-level care in their visiting work. We have summarised a series of core competencies that they should possess through our daily work experience, as well as the issues that they often face in their casework, and we have designed and synthesised them into the curriculum of the training programme for the main home visit volunteers-in-charge.
Volunteer, Ong Siang Yin: In my five years of experience (doing home visits), I was actually doing it based on my own feelings, and what our team leader taught us. But after this training, we have learnt a lot about how to interact with the beneficiaries and how to communicate within the team, which is very useful.
Not only did the volunteers obtain new knowledge, but it also allowed them to learn from the past and recall their original intention.
Tzu Chi volunteer, Kow Teik Seme: I have been doing home visits for a few years, so maybe I don't need to take classes next time, I have had this mindset before. It's not just to revise, it's to re-examine my own values, how they match up with Master’s teachings and the Dharma.
Tzu Chi volunteer, Na Pei Ai: With the constant updating of information, our methods, approaches, and the problems we face with our beneficiaries may be different every time, so we have to keep ourselves updated with this kind of knowledge, and also know how to better help them
Compassion and wisdom go hand in hand in order to provide more appropriate assistance, enabling the road of doing home visits to be longer and more concrete.
