Introducing Strength Cards Unlimited!

Posted: 05/09/2022

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

Rainbow Talk – why LGBTQI+ resources are needed

Posted: 28/05/2021

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

Listening to children’s voices

Posted: 01/06/2020

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

The rise and rise of digital tools

Posted: 03/04/2020

Digital communication tools are not new. For many years, people working in human services and education have been using digital tools to facilitate conversations. Given that lots of clients and students are ‘digital natives’, and they often feel more comfortable using tech-based tools and …Read more

The Power of Vulnerability and Trust in the Classroom

Posted: 25/07/2019

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

How is Strengths-based Supervision Different?

Posted: 13/05/2019

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

Welcome to ‘The Scaling Kit’ web-based app!

Posted: 15/05/2018

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

What’s different about the new edition of Reflexions?

Posted: 09/04/2018

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

Topping the list with ‘LOVE’

Posted: 06/03/2018

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

Using ‘Paperworks’ in Strengths-based Practice

Posted: 31/08/2017

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

Aboriginal Girls Circle

Posted: 01/09/2016

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

Living Questions … Are we there yet?

Posted: 17/12/2015

‘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

Strengths in Circles

Posted: 13/08/2015

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

Facilitation DAZE – what is all the hype about?

Posted: 21/05/2015

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