It might be that you have been a member of a SPEAK group, or are coming fresh to SPEAK. Either way, there will be a lot to learn about the detailed process of getting people on board with a national campaign and how to be most effective at your job.

You’ll learn about how to run SPEAK events, how to organise campaigns actions, develop skills in personal organisation and self education and gain an understanding of how to really build a network of committed people – to name a few of the parts of the course!

The reflective and mock exercises are something we ask you to complete for your benefit, to help all this reading sink in and get you ready for action! Your manager or support worker will make a plan with you for working through your relevant sections of the website and set dates for the completion of exercises.

This isn’t intended to be a school-style test but a way for you to prepare mentally for an important part of your life’s journey. You are making big sacrifices by support raising and committing to serve the SPEAK Network and all their plans and local actions. We want you to be able to do this to the best of your ability, using your own gifts and skills to draw out others’. You will have your own way of doing this so our hope is that this course will be open learning for you to develop in many different ways, and be just the beginning of your development as you learn to self educate. 

Month by Month Plan

The course is set out to give you a early start in support raising, then come some foundation laying sections before the skills sections are added after that.

Please follow through the course in the below order to get a good start to your SPEAK role. This table will take you to the relevant pages, but you can also read more about each section below to start you off.

• Month 1: Raising Personal Support 
• Month 2: Being on the Network Support Team 
• Month 3: Self Management 
• Month 4: Understanding What it Means to Build a Network
• Month 5: Campaigns
• Month 6: Understanding SPEAK's Approach to Faith and Spirituality 
• Month 7: Newtorking and Communicating at SPEAK Events 
• Month 8: Helping the Network Grow
• Month 9: What Happens at SPEAK Gatherings
• Month 10: External Events & Crewing at festivals   
• Month 11: Planning for the Future and Working with Flower Model
• Month 12: Fundraising

Month 1: Raising Personal Support 

This is your starting point! As you begin to familiarise yourself with the training site, and what you need to do to integrate yourself into your role, you also need to start taking action on support raising. This is the first step and this site has a dedicated support raising training plan. Please refer to the support riasing course now before progressing any further through the course, if you are serious about supporting the Network. You will work through it alongside the rest of the training course

Month 2: Being on the Network Support Team 

Deciding to join the Network Support Team is a step out of a normal career path – there is no ladder to climb that will give you a pay rise and respect, and no position that will allow you to have a team of people doing your bidding! In fact, it’s the reverse, the more responsibility and people you support, the more you are serving other’s ideas and vision, as opposed to building your own empire!

It is also a challenge of faith to step in to living on gift income. It’s humbling and full of blessing but it can also bring anxiety and stress when we perhaps lose some income.

And of course, it’s an amazing experience to work alongside and support so many committed and passionate people of our generation.  

Exercise

After reading the documentation and watching the introductory videos, write a reflection (about 1,500 words) on what it means to be part of the Network Support Team, covering what it means to

• Work as a team, with the NST and Flower Model
• Be accountable to others for your area of work
• Opt out of the financial/ambition driven career lifestyle

This should include personal reflections on where you see yourself in this and what you think it means for SPEAK, God’s kingdom and our society.

Month 4: Understanding What it Means to Build a Network

In the Network Support Team, and other key roles in SPEAK, we really hope you will be empowered and equipped to manage yourself. You will always be supported in your work but to be able to manage your own workload, prioritising and progressing towards goals you have set is a great achievement.

Moving from studying to work can take a bit of adjustment, as can moving from a larger organisation to a smaller one. Suddenly, you are responsible for more than just yourself, you are accountable to a team and others are depending on you to complete tasks on time. In a larger organisation, you may only be focussed on a small area with plenty of people around you to draw on, or simply fit in with.

In the NST there are really only a few of us and we need to rely on each other to get the job done. There isn’t any bail out from a large team or group of directors really making things happen. It’s just us!

That might sound like a lot of responsibility, and it is, but it’s also a great learning experience. They ability to take responsibility for yourself with strength and confidence is a big step in our personal development, and something that as you move on from SPEAK, other employers/teams will recognise as a great strength. There are not many people who have moved on from the Network Support Team and not got the job they were after!

Exercises

1. Do the Belbin test and plot where you think you fit in a team. Write a short 500 word reflection on this about how you think your skills will contribute to your role in SPEAK.
2. As part of your own self management, start researching (we’re giving no hints!) and experimenting with ways of managing your time. Write up what tools work best for you and why.
3. Watch the film about receiving and learning form feedback. Think about what motivates you and how you learn best. Write a short piece on why

Month 4: Understanding What it Means to Build a Network

WAITING FOR VIDS/AUDIO FROM LOU TO SEE WHAT TO FOCUS ON

Month 5: Campaigns

WAITING FOR THIS FROM TOM

Month 6: Understanding SPEAK’s Approach to Faith and Spirituality

SPEAK has distinct approach to expressing our spirituality in the context of our campaigns and social justice. This can be quite a jump in thinking from traditional forms of evangelism. To prepare for communicating our approach to the rest of the Network, to partners and to searchers, take some time to read and reflect on the relevant resources. We want to raise Christ consciousness among people who already hold a lot of values that we do as Jesus centred activists. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Over this month, read through SPEAK’s values resources

• The Core Values Book
• Reclaim the Gospel
• the Staff Manual on our Approach to Faith Sharing
• the Philosophy of Faith Sharing

You can download all these from the main SPEAK website or get a copy from the office

Exercises

1. After reading through the resources and talking to your manager or support worker about any questions you have, write a 1,500 word essay on what you believe SPEAK’s dinstinctives to be to local church as far as our values of prayer, discipleship, faith sharing and leadership to be?
2. Get creative! Watch the film about SPEAK at other events. Plan the content for the Little Big Dress yurt at a festival. How would you decorate it, what sort of spiritual and campaigns input would you have to communicate our values in an understandable way? Have a look at previous events plans and photos of our events to help you. Draw up what it would look like and plan a timetable.

Month 7: Networking and Communicating at SPEAK Events

At its heart, the role of the Network Support Team is to build and develop the Network. People get involved in SPEAK because they are excited about the values and campaigns and our job is to steer them towards what it is they are most passionate about and to get them involved in the campaigns and grow in their understanding of the values.

This is done both through personal relationship building and strategic communication at events and in conversation. SPEAK gatherings present a really strategic opportunity to communicate with people in the Network (both personally and to a wide audience) so it’s important to be prepared.

To help staff prepare we have a quite a lot of guidelines, preparation templates and advice for this! This month read through the Soundcheck sections on Preparing and Communicating your event strategy of the website, absorbing how to plan and prepare as part of the team and also how you would prepare your own strategy for networking and communicating there.

Exercises

1. After reading through the Soundcheck section, imagine that you want to establish a media co-ordinator in the larger local SPEAK groups.  Fill in the template ‘My Soundcheck Plan’ to say how you would plan for this – what you would need to prepare before the event, what you would do at the event and what you would do afterwards.
2. Write a short 500 word piece on the value of gatherings for building the Network.  

Month 8: Helping the Network Grow

As well as the philosophy of network building, there are practical things to think about that make it happen. This month, even if it is not your main role, you will learn what the main strategies are and how to go about networking with people in SPEAK to develop their involvement.

A Summary of Regional Support Work

Even if you are not a Regional Support Worker, the RSW work is a good summary of what our main priorities are in terms of getting people involved in SPEAK, taking responsibility locally, and participating in the story and skill sharing.

Read through the RSW section on the website and then carry out the following exercises

Exercises

1. Imagine you are an RSW. Write out a basic plan for your year for your main focuses each term. Also include SPEAK gathering preparation, groups/link visits, training and development.
2. Imagine you have a young adult contact. How would you keep them involved?

Running a SPEAK Stall

When we are out and about at other events, running a good stall is basic but crucial skill. We do a lot of this in SPEAK and it is one of the main ways of getting new sign ups so it is really important to feel confident and happy doing this.

Read through the guidelines on doing a SPEAK stall and have a look at the pictures and videos on this

Exercises

1. Take a large sheet of paper and draw what you would have on a stall if you were visiting a CU. Think about being visually engaging as well as communicating the information. What would the back drop be? What would be the most important info to get across?
2. To go with this stall, write up or record an imaginary (but plausible!) conversation between you as the stall holder and someone who has come to find out about SPEAK. Give them a personality, perhaps they are interested or even concerned, about a particular aspect of SPEAK for example. What would you say to them to introduce SPEAK, the ways they could be involved and how would you connect them to their specific area of interest.

Partnerships

In the Out and About section please read through the pages on partnerships. All of us come across existing and potential partners in our work and it's important to be prepared to handle these relationships with confidence and a genuine spirit of good will.

After you've read through the guidelines, try these exercises:

1. If you met someone from an interesting NGO that was supporting workers co-operatives in Burundi, what are the ways that you would suggest linking with them, and how would you suggest taking a relationships forward (and under what certainties/guarantees). Think about SPEAK's needs too!
2. If you met someone from a student movement with a different ethos from SPEAK (perhaps either a more liberal or conservative theology – you choose) how would you emphasise our connections and what would you make clear to them about our differences?

These are intentionally both open so you can take it in any direction. But try to stretch yourself, not just pick easy options!

Month 9: What Happens at SPEAK Gatherings

Soundcheck

In month 5 you went through the process of networking building and communicating strategy at SPEAK events. Each event has it’s own aims and vision and over the next two months you’ll go through both Vocal Training and Soundcheck and their different aims, learning to understand both of them.

For Soundcheck, focus on the mobilisation section and the downloadable seasons. Read through these and then complete the following exercises

Exercises

1)      In your own words, write up what you think the 5 main aims of Soundcheck are, and how they are achieved through the event (including the run up to it and the follow up)

2)      Create an event plan for Soundcheck. Include categories for publicity and mobilisation, resources and equipment. Look at the planning guides for events for this

Vocal Training

Vocal Training is our second annual gathering which is smaller and more intimate and runs over a longer time than Soundcheck. It’s about ‘training the trainers’ – training key local members to get others active and involved.

The vision, aims and guidelines are accessible in the Vocal Training Section. Please read through them and carry out the following exercises

Exercises

1. Write a short 500 word reflection on the aims of Vocal Training. What do you believe these to be and how do you think the format of the event allows that to happen?
2. Create a workshop plan for a morning at Vocal Training on discipleship in SPEAK groups. What types of sessions would you include, given the aims and feel of Vocal Training? How would you ensure that delegates went away confident to pass on what they had learnt?

Month 10: External Events & Crewing at Festivals

When you’re working for SPEAK, you’ll be involved in a number of festivals and external events. These will all have a different flavour ranging from creative and hippy to Christian conference.

Everything you need to know about stalls in covered in the Network Building 2 section. There are 2 things to work through in this month. One is how to network with partners and the other is how to make a SPEAK space effective (this covers hospitality, campaigns and spirituality).

Using the Out and About section of the training site, read through the guidelines on working with partners and being at external events and festivals.

Exercises

1. Imagine you are taking a SPEAK stall and/or workshop to a Christian conference where several of SPEAK’s partners and Advisory Group members are also going to be. How would ensure you got to talk to them and ask them to help us get more profile at the event? Write a plan for what your aims are and how you will go about achieving them. Use your imagination and make the event any size or focus you want, or base it on an event you know. Use the SPEAK website to put in realistically what Advisors or partners might be there. 
2. SPEAK’s Big Dress is at an eco-festival and your role is to plan the

Month 11: Planning for the Future and Working with Flower Model

Within SPEAK there is established regular work, as well as areas we area developing all the time. At some point you will probably be involved in drawing up plans for new areas or improvements to existing ones. This is done within our strategic planning framework.

There are loads of different planning tools that can be used for strategy writing and we have made some available on line. You may know of or want to find other planning tools to help you process and refine ideas.

However, we also want to see, finally, what an idea will look like for SPEAK so have created strategy templates that are specific to SPEAK. There are several others for different areas, like events and resources. You can download these and read about how to use them in the Planning Section

Many major new ideas come through Flower Model and you are likely to be part of a team within that, inputting ideas as part of the team and then helping turn the ideas in to reality within the office.

Exercises

1. Have a bit of a brainstorming session and imagine what you would like to develop within your role. After having looked through the planning tools, create a new event and resource. Write up your plan in the templates after reading the guidelines on line.
2. Take an example strategic plan or a real one from your petal. Make a work plan for yourself for 6 months for how you would implement this as a staff member.

Month 12: Fundraising

With the way the world works we need cash to campaign. It’s a great investment in transforming situations of injustice but a lot of people don’t recognise that because the results are harder to see.

We need to be people who are not money focussed but are confident in stating that it’s a necessary and legitimate way to support or be part of SPEAK.

We have a fundraising strategy that we work with to help us raise core funds, as well as doing funding applications and appeals for specific appeals. You can read all about these in the Fundraising Section

You will have to carry out fundraising tasks whatever your role so we have several resources and exercises to help you.

Exercises

1. List SPEAK's Fundraising Priorities for the current year and what our aims are for each
2. After reading the guidelines on recruiting Loudspeakers, write up a plan of how you would ask for Loudspeaker support at a church event. Include what resources you would take, what you would include in your communication about SPEAK, and what exactly you would say about becoming a Loudspeaker.
3. Read the guidelines on how to apply to a trust fund and write a 2page mock application to a Development Education trust fund for arms trade campaign resources.