CLP's special ingredient - our facilitators!

From time to time, we manage to get all 15 of the CLP's busy team of facilitators together in the same place at the same time.  The most recent occasion was a few days ago, when they all met at NICVA for a few hours to share their experiences of working with the year 3 groups.

These meetings allow the faciitators to share information and good practice among themselves and, importantly, to identify opportunities for groups to network and support each other on shared issues and activities.  They are also vital to help those of us who spend most of our time in the office to get a much better understanding of what the 43 diverse groups want and need from the programme.

As always, it was both interesting and inspiring to hear their updates on each of the groups. The facilitators really get to know their groups over the CLP year and come to feel very involved each groups' progress and  achievements - not to mention the obstacles and difficulties they face.  I am often impressed by how far beyond the 'call of duty' facilitators will go to support their groups through particular challenges - and how the facilitators, in turn, are equally impressed and inspired by the volunteers and staff in the groups they work with.

So I thought I'd just take this chance to say a big 'thank you' to  our great team of CLP facilitators! (I'm sure all you CLP participants join me - feel free to add a comment to this blog if you want to say a special thank you to your facilitator!)