Call for Applications: Psychological First Aid Training Program

The program will help the practitioners, who are facilitators or organizers of art and cultural events/projects, to learn skills that they can use to help the people they work with to stabilize, ground and get support when they are dealing with the impact of emotionally challenging events.

It will also support participants to develop a life-skill in psychological first aid, which they can apply to supporting people they work with and their friends or family. It will also support participants to know themselves more and be better equipped to support their own emotional wellbeing.

Program Goals 

• Provide a chance for art and cultural practitioners whose work is at the intersection of art/culture and society to increase their understanding of emotional impacts that people they work with may be experiencing, and learn skills to support others.
• Offer practical tools which will support participants to be more confident to support others in situations requiring an immediate response, using creative methods and guidance led by an experienced and professional trainer.
• Build up networking and peer exchange between art and cultural practitioners in Asia.
• Develop MCH’s awareness and understanding of the health and wellbeing challenges experienced and encountered by the network.

Benefits 

• Certificate of Psychological First Aid Training Program co-issued by MCH and ALKIMIA.

Program Structure

• On-boarding
  • In-take questionnaire, for participants to make the trainer aware of their current wellbeing and any information that is useful for the trainer to know given the topic of the Program.
  • 30 minute individual one-to-one, for the trainer to get to know participants individually and understand more about what brings them to the program and what they might focus their learning on.
• Group workshops
  • There will be four 3-hour workshops, facilitated by the trainer. These will include a mix of training skills and knowledge, creative exercises and peer-learning through group discussions.
  • The final workshop will include presentations from the participants about their learning. The trainer will provide detailed guidance and support on preparing for this. MCH staff will join for these presentations.
  • MCH staff will also join the first part of the first workshop, to get to know participants and to answer any questions.
• Creative journaling
  • Creative journaling is a powerful reflective practice tool to expand personal and professional development that participants will be required to do regularly during the four weeks of the programme.
  • During the workshops, the trainer will guide the participants on how to do creative journaling and how to use it as a tool for processing the learning both in the workshops and to reflect between sessions.
  • The trainer will give assignments between the workshops that participants can use to develop their creative journals. They assume that each assignment between workshops will take you about 60 minutes.
  • To support the learning and the creative journaling, each participant will also have a 30-minute one-to-one session with the trainer, that will happen at a convenient time after workshop 2 and before workshop 4.

Eligibility Criteria

• Be an arts and culture practitioner (including but not limited to artist, manager, facilitator, producer, curator, teacher).
• Be a citizen of an Asian country.
  • At least 4 places of 8 will be awarded to citizens from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• Have enough working English to participate in training, including:
  • Delivery from the trainer.
  • Participation in the process and discussion with other participants.
  • Please note that your creative journaling assignments can be completed in any language of your choice, when you give the presentations in the 4th workshop should be in English.

For more information, visit MEKONG CULTURAL HUB.