This free training event is for The Mighty Creatives’ Mighty Employer network, a team of employers working with us to create and support young employability within a range of sectors.

About the Session: Navigating Change and Transition

We all know that navigating change and transition can be significantly challenging at times, and it can present some turbulent experiences. This is particularly true for those children and young people who have experienced vulnerabilities or episodes of disadvantage, especially care experienced children and young people who experience lots of unexpected change, that often isn’t planned or with much time to emotionally prepare for.

Due to some of these experiences, children and young people may find it difficult to navigate change and transition in the workplace, and as employers it is vital that we ensure we are supporting these as best as we can, to ensure that our employees, particularly young employees, are well equipped and supported.

This session will be focusing on the practical things that you can do as employers to support your young employees to navigate these moments of change, which will not only help you support them more, but your whole workforce.

It is easy to overlook the challenges that change and transition can bring. Even those transitions – and sometimes, especially those – which are approached with excitement and anticipation turn out to be the most turbulent and destabilising of all. But these challenges are often not easy to identify or understand, either as the young person moving through a transition or for the adults tasked with supporting them.

What we have to understand is that, while the human brain is incredibly ‘plastic’ – i.e., it’s constantly restructuring and reshaping itself according to its environment, in the interests of its efficiency – it’s also a very lazy organ in many ways.

This session explores the impacts of change, whether it’s welcome or not, on young people’s emotional worlds and learning capacity. Explaining how the young or developing brain adapts to change, and the conditions that are needed to support this pliability, you will learn what you can do to help young people prepare for or anticipate change; how to identify struggles and issues associated with change; and how to help them not only ride the storm of change, but to develop a healthy relationship with their capacity. Not just to survive it, but to thrive in spite of it – and sometimes because of it!

The session will be delivered by Jo Stockdale from Well Within Reach. Find out more about Jo and her work below!

The training session itself will be 2 hours long, followed by a 30 minute Q&A discussion session with Jo and other network members.

About Jo Stockdale

Jo is the Founder of Well Within Reach and is also a Trainer and Consultant. She has a background in the creative sector and the journey into neuroscience and ‘person-centred development’ began there around 13 years ago in what has been an interesting and unexpected learning journey. She has is increasingly interested in how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) affect children’s development and has recently completed training in Dyadic Developmental Practice. Jo has also been an independent drama practitioner for 15 years, with a particular interest in using creative approaches to support young people with learning disabilities, and those with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

About Well Within Reach

Well Within Reach are based in the East Midlands and deliver their services right across the UK, from Training, Talks and Workshops, to Evaluation and Consultancy, Creative Learning Resources and support for parents. Their specialism is demystifying the secrets of the brain to help explain the challenges that affect so many aspects of so many lives. They share game-changing insights which help us to unlock cognitive, social and emotional strength, by nurturing the development of those you live with and work with ‘from the inside out’.