On 7th & 8th October, Challenge 2000 staff gathered for a two-day workshop. Both days started with reflection time, sharing of recent experiences and a chance to reconnect with one another. The rest of the Wednesday was then spent working through the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as a chance for staff to understand themselves and one another a little better.

On Thursday, the focus was on supporting behavior and responding to challenging situations, with input and discussion around the impact of adverse childhood experiences on development of the brain.

Comments from staff about these two days included:

I absolutely loved learning about what myself and others personalities in the Myers Briggs! It has been extremely helpful in learning about how different people approach tasks and how they come up with ideas. I learnt a lot about myself, including what my slightly ‘weaker’ areas are and what skills I should be capitalizing more on.

The work on challenging behaviours was really helpful. It made me stop and think again about the trauma some young people experience and what it does to them. Also, made me grateful for the combined wisdom and experience of our staff who work so lovingly to support young people who are hurting.

I have always enjoyed staff training as it is a great opportunity to spend quality time with the whole Challenge whanau. It was great checking in with each other, especially as there are a lot of people that I had not seen for a while!