Group Facilitation - Exploring Volunteerism

On February 26, 2018, I facilitated a group entitled "Exploring Volunteerism".  During this group, I was given the opportunity to facilitate on my own and bring a protocol that I created to life.  During the introduction, I believe I was not very sure of myself and I am sure my voice was a bit shaky (this tends to happen when I speak in front of others); however, when we moved on to the first activity, I became more comfortable with my group and it evolved into more of a dialogue.  The first activity was my favorite because the handprint craft allowed a more relaxed and informal setting and elicited a more open conversation between group members.  My second activity, the Volunteer Match website, went much better than I anticipated.  I was pleasantly surprised when my group members said they would use this tool in the future and might even use it for their own clients.  I think the Blue group is very unique because we all give input and participate to the best of our ability in these groups, and that was definitely true with the one I facilitated.  I anticipated this group to not be as exciting as the others because we are all required to get volunteer work for the MOT program, so volunteerism is not a foreign thing to any of us.  Despite that, my group shared and processed the information in a wonderful way.  I believe this group session went by effortlessly and lasted the appropriate amount of time.  My biggest take-away from this group facilitation was that I became more comfortable being in a position of authority and speaking in front of other people (which, will no doubt be a part of any occupational therapy setting I eventually become involved in).  Ultimately, I believe this facilitation was very beneficial for my learning.