Introducing the latest edition to our suite of strengths-based tools and resources—Strength Cards Unlimited! Everyone has strengths. But did you know that strengths are more than just personal qualities? They also include your relationships, culture, health, community, the natural world and access to supports. …Read more
Why are LGBTQI+ resources are needed? Because everyone deserves respect. We share spaces with people whose ideas, beliefs and stories differ from our own. Our interests, languages, bodies and styles are many and varied, and this rich diversity is reflected in our experiences of …Read more
So often in the work we do, we are looking for innovative and creative ways to include the voices of the people we work alongside. This can be particularly challenging if we are working with children. Dr. Lisa Stafford and her team at the …Read more
Lillian Daley, a Grade 6 teacher in Darwin—the capital city of Australia’s Northern Territory—writes about the power of vulnerability and trust in the classroom. I first came across Innovative Resources when I was a pre-service teacher completing a placement at a school for disengaged …Read more
Davys and Beddoe, authors of Best Practice in Professional Supervision: A Guide for the Helping Professions (2010: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London), suggest that strengths-based approaches to supervision are different to an hierarchical and managerial model of supervision where the supervisor is perceived as the ‘expert’, who imparts …Read more
At Innovative Resources we never tire of hearing about new and creative ways that people use Picture This. Why is it so useful, and so popular? Possibly because of the large number and variety of photos within the set, or maybe because there is …Read more
Scaling is a simple, highly visual and easily understood way of measuring and evaluating anything. Look around and you will see scaling being used in countless ways every day. A wall of a hospital might show a big temperature gauge to measure how fundraising …Read more
When conversations turn to tricky subjects, our hands are often clear indicators of discomfort. Whether it is hands thrust deep into pockets in defiance, or nervously rearranging hair, or biting fingernails, or any other kind of flicking, tapping, picking or squeezing we may be …Read more
If you are a youth worker, counsellor, mentor, teacher, chaplain or welfare coordinator in a school, chances are you’ve come across the Reflexions cards somewhere along the line. You may even have a set kicking around in your tool bag of resources. A new …Read more
SOON Article from the archives (April 2015, issue 76) Nicole Rotarua got in touch during a short break in Nairobi, Kenya. Here’s her moving account of a team building session in Sudan. Since 2013 I have been working in the Nuba Mountains, a site of war and …Read more
Think back to when you were a young child. Can you remember playing with your parents, perhaps particularly with your mother? Or if you are a parent or grandparent now, do you play with a baby or pre-schooler in your family? Perhaps peekaboo behind …Read more
Becoming an independent individual is a complex and sometimes difficult journey. Who am I? What am I feeling? What is important to me? What choices and changes do I want? Where am I at and where am I heading? Reflexions can help young people …Read more
All of the tools published by Innovative Resources have grown out of, or are compatible with, strengths-based practice. Also known as the ‘strengths approach’, this is a way of working that focusses primarily on strengths and hopeful possibilities. It does not ignore difficulties or challenges but the …Read more
Peer supervision—why do it? Human service workers get together in peer supervision sessions to discuss practice, to reflect, and to wonder about ethical considerations. Lucky souls, aren’t we? And, it feels entirely congruent to approach peer supervision sessions from a strengths-based perspective. The idea …Read more
In researching for an article on the subject of circle work, being the theory and practice that sits behind Innovative Resources’ Strengths in Circles card set, we came across a wonderful video capturing an Aboriginal Girl’s Circle in Australia. Of course it was no surprise to …Read more
‘Are we there yet?’ Every parent has heard this question from the back of the car once the two minutes of ‘Eye Spy’ have worn off. Maybe questions like this never quite go away but they just change form as we hit adolescence. They …Read more
CIRCLES APPROACHES What are circle approaches, and how are they used? The use of circles in groups is timeless and is an integral part of many indigenous cultures. Circles approaches aim to maximise participation in groups by creating safe spaces for participants to talk honestly and be …Read more
From our May Facilitation DAZE… Last week another band of fearless facilitators braved the Beehive training room to engage in some ‘seriously optimistic’ learning, sharing and knowledge building around a strengths based, solution focused approach to facilitating group work. Twelve St Luke’s staff, joined by four external participants, …Read more
