2008 is witnessing a significant growth in Digby Morgan's corporate and social responsibility (CSR) programme of activities and the company’s very own Alice Venner reports from a day spent a day running workshops for The Princes Trust.

The day was part of a 12-week, team-based programme of personal development for young people aged 16-25. The course is held at 300 locations nationwide and delivered to approximately 8,000 participants every year. The aim of the programme is to re-engage with young people encouraging them to take responsibility for their own learning and development within a framework of a flexible programme. Participants achieve a nationally recognised accreditation and, hopefully, increased self-esteem, motivation and the momentum to plan for their futures.

The programme develops personal competencies and skills through a challenging mix of practical activities and follows a national framework. This includes icebreakers and team building (including a week at a residential centre), real community projects which the team choose and raise the money to carry out and individual work placements and planning for the future. This all culminates in the participants presenting their achievements to an invited audience.

My Digby Morgan colleague, Matthew Chester, and I worked with a Royal Bank of Scotland representative to facilitate a day-long workshop aimed at providing the participants with the skills required to identify and attain a two week work experience placement. The individuals participating face a variety of challenges to securing a placement including low levels of numeracy and literacy.

We ran the day at Southall College for a team of nine individuals facilitating a series of group activities and individual tasks. It was a long day! Although the workshop was just the one a day, the energy levels required to engage and motivate these individuals for a whole day was huge!

Matthew and I found the day hugely challenging and rewarding. The individuals were tough to please but as they got involved in each activity and started opening up about themselves and their interests and embark on the early stages of a skills evaluation we felt that we had really achieved something significant.

As experienced facilitators, I think we were both quietly confident that we would be able to lead and run a valuable day though flexibility was the order of the day in order to ensure that we maintained optimum concentration levels throughout. However, the real development achievements for us personally included adapting our own communication styles to ensure that the audience engaged with us. And, of course, a regular ‘energy injection’ in the form of chocolate always works wonders when energy levels flag!

From a personal perspective, the most interesting thing that I learnt was that it was not my ability to facilitate and lead that was important but, rather, my coaching and empowering skills - particularly in listening and encouraging participants to share their thoughts and experiences with the rest of the group.

Unlike our usual day to day activities representing Digby Morgan, this was not about our brand and our business but was about the company giving us, as individuals, the time and space to use our commercial skills to make a contribution to a group of people who have not had the same educational and social advantages that we’ve had. By simply taking an interest and making an effort to take the time to listen and encourage it seemed that we could make a real difference. And, without a doubt, Matthew and I have also benefited from the opportunity to support the work of The Prince’s Trust.

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