Raising Your Game

Raising Your Game (RYG) is a ground breaking, five year project, running from August 2009 until 2014. It is funded by the Big Lottery fund and led by Mencap  in partnership with I CAN and Nacro.

Raising Your Game aims to improve the lives of young people aged between 14 – 25  with a learning disability or communication difficulty, who have either offended or are at risk of offending. The project will support and empower these young people to address the challenges they face in playing a full role in society.

It is currently running in six locations across England.

I CAN's Raising Your Game Training and Mentoring Programme

As part of Raising Your Game I CAN has developed and piloted two short training courses.

Course 1 is Train the Trainers (TTT). This is a 4.5 hour training session for (5 – 6) young people engaged in RYG. The course develops young people's speech, language and communication skills and prepares them to co-deliver (with I CAN trainer) the training for external organisations

Course 2 is the external training / Talk about Talk (TaT) course for (20) employers likely to provide work experience or volunteering, and for organizations involved in the criminal justice system. This is a two hour interactive training course around a game format using information gathered from young people engaged in the project. It encourages participants to think about what it might be like to have a language and communication difficulty. Using scenario-based games and activities, the workshops aim to help people understand the barriers that the young people face on a daily basis, and the simple adjustments that individuals and organisations can make to support these young people's inclusion.

"I've done disability training before, but this was much more to the point. Other courses informed me, but this showed me." - Jo Collier, trainee social worker.

Mentoring  is an essential element of the Train the Trainer process and the subsequent successful delivery of Talk about Talk. The mentoring provides the young  person  with an opportunity  to identify communication/presentation skills they wish to develop with specialist support and then be able to practise these when delivering the Talk about Talk Training. There is  an opportunity for the young person to consider how these skills are used in their everyday life. This method of learning will help to embed lasting change.

Getting Ready for Court film

A new film about preparing for court, aimed at young people with a learning disability or communication difficulty has been launched by Raising Your Game. 'Getting ready for court' includes information about preparing for court, explains court procedures and describes who is involved before and during a court appearance.

Evaluation

I CAN is evaluating the effectiveness of its training and mentoring programme in partnership with The University of Sheffield.