Family Circle Settings (FCS): A positive community-based behavioral change and revitalization tool

A positive life hack.

We designed and promote family circle settings (FCS) which are groups of 5-13 members who sit around a table for a full day and develop personal plans which they commit to execute for a full year.  The full year plans are printed into a Family Circle Pocket Book (FCPB) which is referred to on a daily basis to check progress.

 

The methodology gets its name from the elements of execution.  These are Beneficiary-centered-problem-posing-solving-venue-based-mentor-mediated methods (BCMMM).  It is a tool that is instructional, balances pedagogy and return-demonstration sessions. It provides insights into individual possibilities and taps into day-to-day experiences to formulate action-driven products addressing expressed needs.

 

By beneficiary-centered the tool can be used to elicit demands or needs from beneficiaries and use these to characterize lived experience situations which become iterative cues.

 

By problem-posing the tool is vehicle of structured examination of a situation through which these questions are fielded what is happening? Why is it happening? Who is most affected? How does it affect my housing or health?  How can we avoid it? Who else can contribute to the problem? How do I contribute to the problem?

 

By problem-solving the tool continues to be a vehicle of structured examination of a situation through which these questions are fielded what is the solution to what is happening? Why does it continue to happen? Why does it stop happening?  Who is most affected? How can we provide solutions to avoid exacerbating risks and effects? How can my housing or health be safeguarded?  How can we avoid it? Who else can contribute to the problem? How can we involve all actors to solve the problem? How do I contribute to the solution?

 

By venue-based the tool can be applied at places nearer to where people can easily access meaning that the community is understood to have appropriate resources that serve people’s needs.

 

By mentor-mediated the tool is a reminder that a peer with knowledge and skills passes abilities and capacities to learners who in turn translate the abilities into practical outcomes. Mentor-guided sessions use learning tools that provide flow and pace. 

 

The groups around the tables are led by avuncular or auntie figures whose peer leadership roles are meant to provide direction at the local space.

Before taking up table seats, beneficiaries are briefed about the day's activities for the first fifteen (15) minutes.

 

A basket of lotteries is placed before a group and each one chooses one lottery. The lottery has a number, letter or symbol which is a sign or instruction to go a sit at an assigned table.

The table may have seats for 5-13 members.  Once everyone has their sit, ground rules are read and members are allowed to break the ice (ice-breaking session) for five minutes.

 

Members choose their uncle or auntie who is ready to take on a monitoring role. The uncle or auntie is given a cloth mace as a sign of leadership. The uncle or auntie ensures that turn-taking is adhered to and that members do not speak for more than a minute.

 

An instructor or instructors pass by to provide mentor-input.

Outcomes:

Self-worth, self-esteem, self-recognition, self-drive, self-discovery and self-care cues

1. Beneficiaries are able to turn their community space into learning and sharing of experiences space through managed dialogue and articulation

2. Beneficiaries are able to self-recognize their potential to take up roles that revitalize their thinking and action following instructions contributing to collective life promoting cues

3. Managed community-based activities are an opportunity to create routine in communities thereby contributing to tools characterizing resilience and intergenerational or cross-generational bidirectional support

4. Knowledge and skills learned or shared can be transferred and scaled into day-to-day activities enhancing positive practices that are life promoting

5. Family Circle Settings (FCS) are accessible community-based, community-owned, community-led evidence-based care tools which are tailored and targeted at dealing in social relations, communications, turn-taking, empathy, compassion, dignity-affirmation, respect, dutifulness and other values

6. Therapy without stigma executed appropriately using beneficiary-centered-problem-posing-solving-venue-based-mentor-mediated methods (BCMMM) providing insights into individual possibilities and connecting capacities to objectives

 

7. A rapid appraisal or situational analysis tool providing characterization of incidences generated by the beneficiaries with help from mentors

 

8. Mapping of problems, solutions and stakeholders including a social-safety net mapping of the community

 

9. A Family Circle Pocket Book (FCPB) which is referred to on a daily basis to check progress