October 2008 Journey of Understanding: Diversity in Scotland

A new adventure lay in store for Encompass as the team boarded the plane for bonny Scotland on Monday 13th October and touched down in Glasgow, the meeting point for the participants of the ‘October 2008 Journey of Understanding: Diversity in Scotland’ programme.

Waiting for us were a group of young people from all over Scotland, from Inverness to Perth to Glasgow, nervous but excited about what the coming week would bring. The nerves didn’t last for long though, and the bus journey from Glasgow to the Outward Bound® centre at Loch Eil was already filled with lively chatter as the participants started the process of getting to know each other.
On arrival at Loch Eil, we were thrown straight into the programme, starting with a refreshing ‘jog and dip’ into the Loch! This was followed by low dynamic activities, led by the Outward Bound® instructors, and then onto the first evening’s discussions which focused on communication and helped the participants to find out some rather interesting things about one another.

For the Encompass staff it was amazing to see how quickly the group pulled together, which undoubtedly was helped along by a very emotional and thought-provoking session on identity and the events that have influenced each person’s life and made them the person that they are. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room, and already the individual participants felt able to open up and start to trust the others in the group who were already becoming firm friends.

The most physically challenging by far was definitely the 2-day expedition, which involved the 2 groups taking different routes to hike towards a ‘bothy’ (a basic shelter left unlocked for anyone to use, found in remote, mountainous areas, and particularly common in the Scottish highlands- a new word learned for us Londoners!), nestled in a valley by a stream, and setting up camp for the night.While the Stuart clan arrived in good time to relax, gather firewood and prepare for the evening to come, the Mackay clan got somewhat waylaid, having to navigate their way over bumpy, holey terrain in the dark! Nevertheless, this activity proved yet again to bring the whole group closer together, with the Stuart clan welcoming the Mackay clan with open arms, setting up their tents and cooking their dinner for them, and generally rewarding all their hard work. Well done everyone!

Back at the Outward Bound® centre, the discussions escalated and the group found themselves caught up in some very heated debates on issues affecting young people growing up in Scotland today. But rather than dividing individuals with opposing viewpoints, the preparation that had led up to these sessions, building up trust through teambuilding activities, meant that friendships were strengthened rather than weakened. The group were able to take on board the different perspectives and try to understand why it was that others may think so differently to themselves.

The end of the week saw the group sharing their ideas about ways in which they can help to make positive changes within their local communities, and to make a difference to combat the problems that they see in their own local areas. We talked about the support that Encompass can provide to its participants in getting these ideas off the ground, and the participants expressed what skills and training they would like to see as part of the ‘Diversity in Scotland’ reunion which will take place on the weekend of 22nd and 23rd November 2008 in Glasgow.

This programme had an extra addition to the Encompass staff team who helped to give the discussion activities his own special something! Delase, a participant from the ‘July 2008 Journey of Understanding: Diversity in the UK’ programme, was the first ever Trainee Facilitator that Encompass has taken on, but this will be the first of many opportunities for our past participants to get involved in helping Encompass to run the discussion workshops on our programmes while gaining practical skills in facilitation. For more details about this, see the ‘NEWS’ section of this website.

So it’s goodbye to Scotland for now, but it’s not long until the Encompass team is off up the the Highlands once again, first for the ‘Diversity in Scotland’ reunion, and the ‘November 2008 Journey of Understanding’. Wow, aren’t we busy?!