MLRC thanks our Befrienders and Maeve Hurley and Evanna Lyons of “Ag Eisteacht” for supporting our Befriending Service at an excellent training day in February
One of Mercy Law Resource Centre’s key services is our Befriending service. Our Befriender volunteers befriend clients to accompany them and provide them with emotional and practical support as they go through the difficult process of trying to assert their rights.
In January, MLRC welcomed on board five new Befriender volunteers. The new Befrienders attended a very special training day on 1 February 2014, given by Maeve Hurley and Evanna Lyons of ‘Ag Eisteacht’. A number of current Befrienders and MLRC staff also attended. This training day was extremely useful in developing skills in how to react and respond to clients in order to be as of much benefit to them as possible in a limited time frame.
Attendees learned how to:
- Recognise and read signals of underlying issues that clients may be upset about or dwelling on.
- Respond to those signals so that the client will feel comfortable about opening up and discussing their problems.
- Reflect encouragingly what the client has confided.
- How to end the encounter in a constructive way.
MLRC would like to thank Maeve Hurley and Evanna Lyons for a lively, very interesting and worthwhile training day. MLRC extends a huge thanks to our Befrienders, new and continuing, for giving their time and great energy for this training day and being prepared to be put through their paces with plenty of role play. The day proved to be educational, entertaining and uplifting!
