I began with the Personal Changes because it allows participants to not only value the changes in their lives but to also voice their insights about these changes. Activity 4.1.1–Autobiography Presentations, is probably the most engaging of the three activities outlined in this part for participants to reflect and remark on their life changes. If making changes or getting something done is a problem for some participants in your group, I would suggest doing Activity 4.1.3–No Excuses to help with procrastination problems that keep participants stuck. Part Two: World Changes examines the impacts individuals can have on society. I would recommend doing either Activity 4.2.1–Biographies of Societal Changes: Inventions & Inventors, or Activity 4.2.2–Biographies of Societal Changes: Social Firsts, for participants to gain an understanding of the value of life changing events. Activities 4.2.3 and 4.2.4–A Parliamentary Debate, and An Advisory Committee, help participants to think about changes at a societal level. Activity 4.2.5–Biographies of Unlikely Successes, presents a collection of sample biographies for you to use. These can easily be changed to reflect the interests and values of your participants (Search for brief biographies on Wikipedia.)
Part One: Empowering Support Structures is vital for participants to identify where their personal and external support lies. Activity 5.1.1–All for One, and One for All can be used as an introduction to the following activities in this part. It is my recommendation that Activities 5.1.2–Identifying Support, and 5.1.3–Identifying Essential Skills, be done sequentially. Activity 5.1.5–Life Mapping, consists of four different mapping styles. Choose one map style that you feel is best suited for your group. Activity 5.1.6–Strategize for Change, because of its extended involvement and focus on empowerment, should only be done after the previous activities have been completed. Part Two: Engaging in Life is designed to move participants towards obtaining their employment goal. All activities in this part should be completed in the order outlined in this guide. This area is no doubt the most employment-ready unit in this guide. It can be used as a stand-alone unit or as an additional resource for other employment preparation programs.
All units in this guide have a self-evaluation for participants to reflect on what they have learned about themselves. The keywords noted on the bottom of each sheet will be particularly useful for participants to use to describe themselves in an interview. The self-evaluations do not allow for a ‘maybe’ or ‘sometimes’ answer. All answers are either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. This was designed purposefully to encourage participants to be more decisive about how they feel about themselves. If a facilitator experiences problems with this, simply remind participants to decide what would be most true for them. For example, if it happens that they most often act one way in a certain situation, then the answer would be ‘yes’. I would recommend that you use the checklists at the beginning and at the end of each unit in order to help participants recognize changes and progress.