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Core Club Room Volunteer Relationship with Club Members

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Core club room volunteers will take a coaching approach to conversations based on beliefs that in our club and club members the language and stories people use create their reality and what people focus on becomes their reality. If we focus on positive experiences, hopes and ideas, we can create positive energy and build a positive future.

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In our interactions with club members and their families we will develop a collaborative coaching alliance to facilitate the creation of club goals and develop strategies for pursuing these goals.  We will listen, observe, and customize our approach to the learning styles and personalities of our club members.  The power will reside in the club, not within us as core club room volunteers. Our role will be to help hold the co-created club agenda.

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We do not see ourselves as consultants with specialized solutions for people who lack internal solutions; but as part of a whole, which is greater than the individual club members or volunteers.  In this coaching role we will ask questions to draw out the resources within our club members and their families.  Answers to the questions will articulate the club's dreams, desires, and aspirations; as well as clarify the mission, purpose, and goals.  We will use additional questions to help move each club member toward desired outcomes. 

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Each child is seen as naturally creative and resourceful.  Within this frame of reference we will provide support to boost the skills, resources, and ability that each child already has.  We will strive to promote learning and initiative.  Our club room will become a safe courageous space for club members and their families to take risks and make significant life changes.

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We will assess satisfaction in areas of the child’s life such as relationships, initiative, career awareness, communication skills, recreation/interests/play/leisure activities, personal growth, self-concept, character, habit development, decision making ability, spirituality, and inclusion in community.  Core club room volunteers will be encouraging, supportive companions to illuminate the agenda and change process so that the club member can fully live.  We will clarify and focus energy, mindset, capabilities, skills, habits, practices, and patterns that contribute to the effectiveness of our club member and our club agenda.

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We will use respectful communication with children with  and their peers to promote their decision making, goal setting, and self-determination.  We will treat the children as people that we are equipping to become future independent adults.  We will become a part of the village that invests in each club member’s unfolding future.

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We recognize that children continually learn and that they learn best when they are actively involved and interested.  Our goal is to match tasks and activities with each child’s level of ability and attention span.  We will encourage club members to think for themselves, helping them make their own decisions and find their own answers to questions.  We will provide an atmosphere that offers club members suitable challenges and stimulates problem solving.  We will help the children develop self-esteem by giving them the opportunity to be actively involved in their own learning.  By providing co-operative play and time for the children to engage in play or leisure we will encourage sociability and friendship. A range of activities will be chosen to reflect various differences in cultures, gender and ability. We will regularly check our books, posters and other materials to ensure that they challenge stereotyping and that they positively and accurately reflect cultural and ethnic diversity and are free of societal stigma toward people with disabilities,.

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Core club room volunteers will use the skills of listening, curiosity, self-management, and action learning.  We will listen to the club member’s words, the content beyond their words and the meaning behind their story.  We will consider what the club member needs to do or become to close the gap between where he or she is now and where he or she wants to go.  We might rephrase what the child says to make sure that we are hearing what the child actually means.  We will be like scientists using curiosity to learn about our club members and invite them to develop an internal curiosity and try difficult things.

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The core club room volunteer is immersed in the goals of the Tricord Club and the child’s situation and growth.  We will help club members manage their own judgments and opinions of self and others.  The product of the work that the core club room volunteers and the club members and their families do cooperatively is the action and learning that combine to form change.

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The powerful purpose of the coaching alliance we form is to forward the action on club goals and deepen the club member’s learning.  We want to develop a structure of nonjudgmental accountability.  We will strive to encourage tangible, disciplined, focused change and learning.  We want our club room to be a place where club members can thrive, change, grow, fail, and try again.