I have been reflecting recently that 2015 is my 25th year working with MacIntyre. Now I don't intend to go all maudlin and 'back in the day' on you and yes I was VERY young, you could say a child when I started but as these milestones often do it has made me think and reflect.
Of course things have changed; MacIntyre is bigger, employs more staff, supports more people, in more areas and supports them in so many varied ways and contexts. Were we doing Great Interactions then, well yes of course, MacIntyre's fundamental beliefs and values have always been there and these have always been about good support. However for me what Great Interactions has done is given a real voice and language to those values and a method of communicating them to our staff in a way that makes sense.
This was no better demonstrated to me than when I visited one of our services that No Limits runs. A young person there was becoming quite anxious and I observed a member of staff support this person with complete focus. Within the space of a few minutes it was clear that the approach they were taking was having the desired affect (warmth, listening, stepping back, responsive, creative..) to name a few and equally obvious that the facilitation skills they were using during this time were absolutely critical in supporting this person to become less anxious... right time, right place came to mind.
This example along with many others continues to make me feel really proud to be associated with an organisation that devotes so much of it's time, energy and direction of work into improving the lives of the people we support and fundamental to me as to why those couple of years have turned into 25! For me Great Interactions has always been about keeping it simple and it's because of this and the relevance of it for all of our staff that its impact and influence will continue to be felt.
Maria Tole
Head of Operations-No Limits
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