MY Map

About MY Map

This is a child centred process which is adapted from Person Centred Planning to loosely follow the format of solution focussed planning meetings widely held in the Highland Area. It attempts to make a child or young person feel more included in his or her meeting. It is designed to engage the audience and especially the focus child with its strong visual display and interactive nature.

It is a fairly lengthy process taking 1 hr 30 - 2 hrs. Two facilitators are required, one to manage the process and one to manage the graphics, the image above shows the various elements that make up MY Map, in the meeting situation this would be colourful, click on it for a bigger image.

The child can be involved at various levels and in various ways including making up the invite list, making suggestions during the meeting, commenting on the suggestions of others, assisting the graphic recorder with drawing and colouring the map.

Given the preparation and time commitment required, this would be seen as a process to use in selected situations rather than at all meetings.

Structure

Introduction - facilitator
The Journey So Far - all contribute
The Dream - child or parents only
The Nightmare - child or parents only
Gifts, Talents, Strengths - all contribute
Where Next? - all contribute
How do we get there? - all contribute
Sign Up - all contribute
Finish - facilitator

Preparation

Before the meeting the child or young person and family should be consulted on who should be invited. It is suggested that numbers are kept to 6-8 people. This should include people who know the child well and are in a position to give ongoing encouragement and support to the child in following their dream and moving away from their nightmare. People should be asked to set aside 2 hours for the meeting.

The child needs help to think about and articulate their dream and nightmare before the meeting so that ideally they can verbalise this during their meeting. In some cases it may be necessary to assist the child to communicate their dreams and nightmares in advance of the meeting and for the facilitator to relay this during the meeting or where this is not possible to take a parental view of the dream and nightmare.

The graphic facilitator may wish to have a map drawn in pencil ready to be filled in during the meeting.

A suitable venue is required with sufficient wall space available for the map.

1. Introduction

The facilitator begins by explaining that the meeting is about …(child’s name). The child is asked what their favourite colour is and the recorder begins the map by drawing the child’s name in their favourite colour while the facilitator explains the process the meeting will follow.

2. The Journey So Far

This should be a brief (allow 10 mins. only) picture of child’s current situation including any issues and concerns.

3. The Dream

This part of the meeting is looking for a direction to move in, asking the child ‘What is your dream?

4. The Nightmare

This part of the meeting acknowledges any fears the child might have. This does not require to be dwelt on. The group are told that we want to move away from the nightmare and towards the dream.

5. Gifts, Talents, Strengths

At this point the group members are asked to write on a series of post-its any and all gifts, talents and strengths they are aware of in the child. ‘What does (child’s name) contribute?’. As they write these they are invited to come up and stick their post-its onto the relevant area of the map.

The facilitator then reads through all the post-its inviting the child to choose their 3 favourite talents which will be written in pride of place on the arrows.