Helm goes international !

Our CEO Helen Sykes was honoured to be invited in November 16 to speak and facilitate at an international youthwork event hosted in Perm, Russia. Youthwork practice and challenges from all over the world were shared and discussed, from countries as far apart as the Ukraine and Saudi Arabia, youth ambassadors attended from the UN, and seminars and discussions centred on the importance of volunteering in youthwork. All Helm students routinely volunteer to gain valuable experience and it was great to be able to share this experience in an international forum and learn about new approaches from others. Helen’s invitation came about through Helm’s collaboration this year with Dare2Lead, a leading youthwork training enterprise led by John Loughton.  Helen says it is always fantastic to meet people from so many different cultures, and she now hopes to be able to facilitate staff and student exchanges in the future. She says the most surprising thing was wearing a badge for two days which described her as an “Expert” (which she feels sure was a translation error), but has hung it up on her office wall in case she ever needs a confidence boost!