Appreciative Inquiry Training on Rathlin

Friday 17 January 2014

A group of Rathlin residents attended the ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ training held on the island on Monday and Tuesday of this week. In total, fourteen people participated in the training, with nine residents being able to commit a lot of their time to complete the workshops.

The training was conducted by Tim Slack of Appreciating People, a Liverpool-based company that has a good track record with a variety of communities, helping them to identify and build on their strengths and assets. It was felt that this approach would be appropriate for Rathlin as it is highly accessible, interactive and constructive.

The two day’s work built on the existing skills and local knowledge of island residents, and the training helped increase awareness of how these local strengths and capacities can shape our future on Rathlin. Building on the success of these training workshops and the creation of a volunteer team the next stage of the project is about to start. This group of volunteers will now begin to gather ideas and practical steps from the community. They will conduct a series of individual conversations based on a brief set of questions. From these conversations and a community event planned for March, we hope that together we will be able to shape a new strategic vision for the island: ‘Rathlin 2020’.

The next newssheet will give more information on this process in the coming days.