"Explore" relationship workshops - volunteers needed.

By Ian Harkness from The Explore Experience.

Could you help with a worthwhile educational project by the charity Explore aimed at helping young people understand about relationships?

The vast majority of young people (over 90% according to MORI) hold very real and deep aspirations for having an enduring and meaningful relationship, and a healthy family life that is probably through the institution of marriage.

But did you know that less than 5% of today’s young people have ever had the chance to hold a detailed and open conversation with a parent, relative, teacher or adult on the subject?

Explore runs workshops in secondary schools targeted for  sixth formers to give them that chance to discover  what it takes to maintain successful relationships.

Explore applies the principle of learning by experience, where young people themselves  lead their own question and answer sessions  to investigate the relationships of ordinary couples who, in response, answer with  the experience of their own marriage. The young people are prepared and supported to draw conclusions from these dialogues which will lead them into seeing, through the life experience of our volunteers,  some of the moral components and life skills that produce enduring and healthy relationships, family life and marriage in today’s society.

The workshops are organised and led by trained Explore staff.

We arrange for volunteer married couples to come to schools to engage with groups of about 20 students at a time.

 

Commitment is light, generally no more than two workshops a year, and most of our volunteers find it an enjoyable experience. Training is given.

 

Some questions which have been asked of our volunteers by students recently:

Why did you get married?

Did you worry that you wouldn’t get on with your inlaws?

Did the inlaws  influence your decision to marry?

Were you worried it wouldn’t last?

How old were you when you got married?

Are you still attracted to each other?

We need:

Couples – prepared to answer questions put to them by young people about their relationship, family life and marriage.

We provide a briefing for couples and endeavour to only use couples once or twice a year to ensure freshness and spontaneity in the dialogue. More information is available on our leaflet which can be downloaded from our website theexploreexperience.co.uk;