Youth and Communities Training in Alice Springs

Community Safety Patrol and Sports and Recreation staff attended in-house training and an Applied Suicide Intervention Training (ASIST) course in Alice Springs over the dates of 27, 28 and 29 November. The in-house training was centred on developing staff’s understanding of their roles as public servants and council values, developing staff’s commitment to council’s service charter, a presentation of the Youth and Communities business unit’s budgets for the 6 months to December 2019 and a mandatory reporting workshop.

“Good group discussions were had in the in-house training. Team members found this session useful. They also had a chance to meet and greet in the reinvigorated Youth and Communities unit,” said Youth and Communities Manager, Jacob Khumalo.

 The ASIST training (only attended by Community Safety Patrol staff) was centred around staff identifying people who are vulnerable and showing signs of suicidal thoughts or the intent to harm themselves and responding to such situations effectively. The training provided staff with confidence to ask about suicide and know what actions to take to support all people within our communities. Staff participated in case studies, simulations, skills practice, videos, workbooks and audio-visuals.

“Even though the training was very confronting at times due to the subject of suicide, all staff agreed that it was great training that will assist them in their role as CSP officers and in their role as community members,” said Jacob Khumalo.