I can just do as much or as little intro as you want for the project, and then we can just jump in. And mainly it's questions, like an interview. Yep. So, yeah, how much of the... I can do like a 1 minute or a 5 minute version, whatever your opinion is. Go the 5 minute version. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, 5, May 1st I guess.
So I've been thinking it was smart for a while now. Nick and I have a company for the Curious Traveller. We did some stuff at the awards and really love hanging out with Smart Recovery. The values all align to what we're trying to achieve with life. And so, this sort of came up as we were thinking about
What is technology and how to bring people together in a community and I think it's probably one of the hardest things that organizations need to think about is how do you build community in a safe way. Obviously, Smart Recovery has a lot of really tough conversations that need to be had in groups and facilitators need to be able to
like do it their way, but also feel like they're supported by the organization. And so they've been looking at a platform. to use that brings all the facilitators together. They're trying to choose which platform, they're trying to choose how to set it up, they're trying to work out.
How do you moderate? How do you support? How do you put content? What type of content? And this is where someone like yourself comes in where we're just going to go through about half hours worth of questions. And yeah, it's not, we're trying to make sure these aren't like very, um,
Very specific questions I'll ask at the end. It's almost like tick box type scenarios. And then what happens is I add your email to this tool called Notion. And they give you access to your transcript, your summary, and your answers. And then there's a form in there too, at any time you can just add more thoughts that you maybe didn't think of at this point.
And then you can just really jump in, and if you say something you don't like, you can just delete it. Cool! So yeah, we're trying to make sure that this process ensures there's privacy as part of this, and then you're comfortable with whatever you're sharing.
But then all of the recordings go to, I don't know if they're Erin, she looks after a lot of the tech and communication stuff. We go to April and a few other of the team, they'll be able to see this and then. There are options after this to be able to, if you're interested, start to think about if you would like to be on webinars or if you want to do interviews that actually then go on to the platform.
Any questions before we start? No, it sounds good, but I must have met you at the awards last year. Maybe. I was slinging a camera and I was probably real busy. But, apologies if I didn't... No, no, I think it's great. Really keen to be involved in anything that SMART's up to really. Awesome.
Rad. So we usually start off with just like, we don't do a lot about yourself, but I would love to know a little bit about your experience facilitating groups. And then I'd love to then to jump in, what are the things that stand out for you most as a facilitator of these groups? So maybe start off with like how long you've been doing it and like what your initial feelings are and then we'll jump into the next bit.
Sure. So I don't directly facilitate SMART so much. My team do, so I, but. I was involved with the rewrite of the Inside Out prison-based SMART recovery, so that's kind of where a lot of my engagement comes in, including how We've had the amazing opportunity to connect with the smart global network around that process and understand what everyone's doing differently around the world, the smart.
A lot of my team facilitates SMART groups both in prison and in the community in South Australia primarily. Just a little bit in WA but primarily in South Australia. So, the common things we come across are not necessarily smart-related challenges. They're usually custodial-related challenges, but that's standard for us and it's just kind of business as usual. I think in terms of
We tend to operate most of our programs in person. We do deliver one prison-based program where the facilitators are online but the participants are in a room together. Generally speaking, a lot of the feedback that we have, sorry, all the feedback is really positive around SMART and creating, particularly in prison, creating.
the knowledge of SMART and the skills around that, as well as the introduction to what SMART is and where it's available on release and that it's available. Um, in all sorts of different ways, shapes and forms is really beneficial. Um, yeah, that's probably kind of the big stuff. Cool.
One of the main things I'd love... You're on mute. Sorry, there's some wild shit going on here. So, I think... So I've been really interested, not so much from your experience as a facilitator, but maybe these questions can then start to think about what you've heard. So let's start thinking about the last time that
A facilitator maybe came to you and they were like they needed help. What do you think they needed help with and why?
Or if they never need help, that's a very good data point as well for us. Generally speaking, they don't. With the training that's available for SMART, and the... kind of like access to both the SMART team and the communities of practice and things like that. It's very rare that they need that.
And if they do, it's usually probably a bit of a conflict between the service model and our client group, which is, you know, harm minimisation, which we fully support, but corrections have said they, you know, must have zero. And so it's usually that it's just really a debrief and a kind of a talking through that and how do we best support this individual's health.
and safety in that space. But generally speaking, that is a very, very common dilemma for our team on a regular basis in a line that they're regularly dancing. Where do they go to get help or to have discussions about that kind of stuff? Internally. So we've also got external clinical supervision for our team too. So they'll do that as part of like team meetings with their direct line manager, each other.
It's a regular kind of topic in that, you know, the dance. Yeah, yeah. Let's jump to tools then. Do you know what facilitators would access and why they would access those tools? And for extra points, where? So they go to find them. Yeah, excellent. Yeah, they use most of the smart tools that they can either download or be introducing the app as well to participants so that they've got them.
as well as staff, but generally a lot of the work, particularly the prison-based stuff, the inside out, is a psycho-ed program as well. Not your kind of standard smart, but it still has that same kind of entry and exit, but there is a bit more tools and resources in that environment because
It is, you know, not a lot changes in seven days in that environment. So the team are really big on using tools to kind of. balance that work, particularly because, you know, we get an hour and a half with someone awake, particularly if they're in prison, we get an hour and a half with them. There's however many hours there are in the rest of the week, I don't know.
To be able to actually provide those resources. Obviously in Prism they don't have access to the technology, so it's us. Printing things, taking them in, and leaving them to kind of create that conversation in their units and things like that. A lot of that, they're definitely, I'm gonna forget them, the names of the ones that they use the most, but often the decisional balance is a really
really big one that they use and almost do like a little bit of a debate in group sometimes around what that looks like, particularly in a prison environment. And so they're kind of the key ones also setting, you know, smart goals and that achievement stuff, so yeah.
Do you yourself access any smart websites or tools or apps at the moment and how often do you think you would do that? Not often, but I do access them just for my own life because they're really helpful and as April continues to inform me, work is an addiction as well.
Actually, I get that one a little bit when I chat to her. But I actually just, you know, they're really useful tools. And so this is an open question and I'm going to sort of close it a bit more. What like platform or what like functions on a platform do you think would be most important for facilitators in terms of
Either a community or tools, like are there things that you wish were available for facilitators or yourself to support those facilitators? I think it's Definitely that, the tools are useful, but it's definitely the opportunity to discuss and have that kind of.
Critical reflection, self-reflection, but hear other people's opinions. That's why we run SMART as a group, so that everyone's opinions are a part of something and their experiences. I think that we need the same for our facilitators as well, for that support.
Because it is the same, you know, it's the same premise really. So yeah. Cool. All right, this is going to be a list of things. Feel free to talk about as much of them as you want, or not much if you feel like they're not relevant. What about the function of direct messaging to other facilitators? So there's a whole group of facilitators and you can direct message any of them. Do you think that's worthwhile?
Yeah, I think so. I think it would definitely be valuable for both experienced and new facilitators to have that. capacity to kind of query and self-reflect. I think it's really important. We're curious in our work but are we curious in ourselves? And I've just been actually, it's really timely that he's raising it.
Just been working on some stuff. We've got a new program coming on that's not drug and alcohol related. It's employment related, but we're bringing in a new cohort of staff that aren't familiar with our client group. And so some things