Interesting volunteering orientated questions (open to all)

Hi there everyone,

Last night I had the pleasure of attending my first evening of volunteer training course. Part of what made it so enjoyable was the questions and discussions between the volunteers springing from those questions about vulnerability and helping people. And so I wanted to share the questions with you here (and some of the answers we came up with)

I'll put the answers in spoilers so that if you'd like you can give the questions a shot yourselves (and I'd reccomend doing so because that'll be more enriching for you). Please share your answers here as well for other people to see,

Questions

1) What makes someone vulnerable?

2) What is the opposite of vulnerability?

3) What makes someone the opposite of vulnerable? This following spoiler contains the answer we agreed on in case you'd like some assistance?

4) How do we help/support people / What's our role?


Answers,

1) What makes some vulnerable?



2) What's the opposite of vulnerability?



3) What makes someone the opposite of vulnerable?



4) How do we help/support people / What's our role?



So there you go! I hope you enjoyed thinking about that, and I look forward to reading what you write!

Have a nice day folks

* background
I have held many responsibilities in my life. A platoon Sgt. A avionics survival technician in the US Coast Guard. Medic in a Cav. Unit. A boy nurse in a combat hospital in Cropper. These answers come from that guy sometimes.
To me the word vulnerable is unprepared. So... the opposite would be ready, (Seper Paratus)
How does one be prepared? Depending on the situation but mindfulness is a big deciding factor in things for me. ( for me personally. We are Jedi sp every answer WILL be different, count on it! )
As a Knight it's my sworn duty to the Temple and those in it. Here I have received and am STILL learning my trade. Lol yea I giggled a bit there. As I study I have learned and kept and discarded to make...tahh dahh
Me! You can make you too. Every role is different. Most soldiers and cops state the same type of training so we speak the same lingo s and ideas. My role is to my Temple. I found that all on my own. Thanks for the questions, hope they have widened your curiosity

1) What makes someone vulnerable?

Ok, not so much about how they became vulnerable but rather the circumstances defining the vulnerabilities. I just find it easier to then move to problem solving from there. So something along the lines of a need which cannot be met, the key measures being the intensity of need and urgency of it being met - to allow prioritization and all that.

2) What is the opposite of vulnerability?

Nominality :lol: being nominal - normal, functional.

3) What makes someone the opposite of vulnerable?

A combination of things like preparedness, conscientiousness, luck, support, endurance, intelligence, creativity, awareness etc etc.

4) How do we help/support people / What's our role?

Education, honesty, transparency, hard work, engagement, responsibility, that sort of stuff!?

1) What makes someone vulnerable?

Someone who is vulnerable is at risk for negative events or outcomes. For example, a family who is consistently unable to pay their bills every month is at risk for eviction, making them vulnerable. This state of poverty also means that the children in the family are at risk for low school performance and potentially dropping out, so the children are vulnerable to those things. Similarly, someone who is emotionally vulnerable is at risk to be hurt or manipulated by others.

The things that create vulnerability are specific to the vulnerability itself.

2) What is the opposite of vulnerability?

Not being at risk for a negative event or outcome.

3) What makes someone the opposite of vulnerable?

Whatever actions or states put a person at less risk for the event or outcome in question. A steady source of sufficient income makes a person less vulnerable to eviction. A healthy amount of self-esteem makes a person less vulnerable to an abusive partner.

4) How do we help/support people / What's our role?

To either a) help eliminate the source of the vulnerability or b) help to prevent or lessen the effect of the negative event or outcome.

Helping a person secure gainful employment eliminates that source of vulnerability. Providing tutoring to a child living in poverty helps to prevent low grades without addressing the poverty itself.

Thanks for this exercise! I enjoyed it.

To everyone who replied to the last set of questions- I thought that there were some interesting (and varied!) responses given so thanks again for that.

Since my last post, there has been two weeks of the volunteer training session and so I thought I’d write up another post with questions for those who’d like to reflect on all of this. Enjoy!

(Again, the answers that the volunteer group came up with will in Spoilers, and I hope you can share your responses to the questions as well on this thread.)

Questions

1) What makes you feel listened to?
2) What types or sorts of listening are there?
3) What types of questions are there?

Before the answers I’d like to say that all of these questions were asked because we are encouraged as volunteers to listen and help our clients come up with their own answers rather than give advice or ‘counselling’. Therefore, we’re better off knowing how to ask questions to put the person more in control and in a position of ‘owning’ their story (Brené Brown) rather than think we know what is right for the person.

Answers

1) What makes you feel listened to?


2) What types/sorts of listening are there?


3) What types of questions are there?


More generally we made a point of active listening and thought I’d write down the page of ‘When you are or not listening’ because I thought this was really quite well done. It focuses more on active listening but it seems like interesting stuff to me and I imagine maybe to you... (In spoiler)

And also, after looking at these questions in my group, we looked at some ‘goal’ building models, such as P-SMART and GROW and then looked at the application process for the clients. I thought I’d just mention the models here below for those interested. I believe the aim of models is to help people have a structure around which they can build a stronger goal where they are more likely to stick to what they set out to do. The models are both mnemonic acronyms, P-SMART, and GROW. (Also in spoiler)

So that’s that week down! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed that. I hope to do another post for week 3 after people have had a chance to answer this one! Have a great day,