Words from Households Who Have Been Through the Programmes

We started with the meeting planning pack because we genuinely could not agree on how to have family meetings without them turning into arguments. The agenda templates seemed simple but they made a surprising difference — everyone knew whose turn it was to speak, and there was a lot less interrupting. It took a couple of tries but we are still using the format two months on.

The communication workshop was not what I expected — in a good way. I thought it would be more theoretical. Instead we spent most of the session practising in pairs, which was uncomfortable at first but actually very useful. I found the section on emotional temperature particularly helpful. My mother and I communicate differently now, especially around topics we used to avoid.

I completed the facilitation skills training because I help run a community group and needed better tools for managing difficult discussions. The course was well-paced and the facilitators were patient when we got stuck on scenarios. I have since used the methods with my community group and they hold up in real situations, not just classroom ones.

What I appreciated most was that the workshop did not try to tell us what decisions to make or what was right for our family. It just gave us better tools for having the conversation ourselves. That is all we needed, really. We came in with some tension and left with a clearer idea of how to keep talking.

The meeting planning pack is good value. The templates are clear and the role cards solved a problem we kept having — nobody wanted to be the one to close the meeting. Handing that role to whoever had the timekeeper card meant it stopped being personal. My only note is that a few of the ground-rule examples could be adapted more to extended family settings, which Concordia is apparently working on.

I was the most sceptical person in the facilitation training room. I expected it to be impractical. Instead the scenarios we worked through were very close to situations I actually deal with. By the third session I had changed my mind. I now use the structured agenda method every week and it has saved a lot of wasted time and friction in our community meetings.