Here’s a question to those of you who go to (or would like to go to) events organised by community groups or charities etc that involve getting people talking about the issues that matter to them.
What skills do you think that people need in order to make good hosts?
Here at Southampton Voluntary Services, we always want to make people feel comfortable to attend and participate in events that are run for Southampton’s citizens or for the benefit of the local Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector.
We are considering developing a role description/person specification for hosting, and we’d like that to be a collaborative effort. So let us know your thoughts if you have anything you’d like to say.
You can submit your thoughts here: https://forms.office.com/e/MCm49WMJQj
We intend to look at all the answers as part of a future Southampton Coproduction Corner event, and then work collaboratively to pin down what matters most to people.
The sorts of things that people have said to us so far are:
- Good communication before, during and after the event.
- Planned well in advance
- Active listening skills
- Timekeeping
- Making sure everyone has a fair chance to contribute
- Finding ways to capture the conversations, so that there is a record of what matters to people
- An ability to find common ground across various and apparently incompatible subcultures
- Identify where more dialogue is needed
- Intercultural communication skills
- Be able to accommodate people who are neurodiverse
- Awareness of unconscious bias
- A willingness to grow and develop further [a person’s hosting skills]
- Also good to find people that lack skills or confidence but do have potential as hosts – so what are the attributes that indicate potential to develop skills?
Check out www.southamptonvs.org.uk/news for updates on Southampton Coproduction Corner or sign up to the Southampton Voluntary Services newsletter (click the red button on Southampton Voluntary Services’ website) for updates.