At Youth Focus, we have a Staff Reward and Recognition Program which is about acknowledging our teams’ work, expressing gratitude, and providing opportunities for connection.
Our Metro counselling team recently chose to use their Reward and Recognition opportunity to give back to the community by creating backpacks filled with fun and practical items. They connected with Parkerville Youth and Care centre to identify where the greatest need was, deciding that the completed packs would be donated to the Mothers and Toddlers group.
On the day, teams came dressed in their team colours ready to secure the best items within their allocated budget, inspired by their team colour. They used teamwork, collaboration and creativity to carefully select items which offered comfort, were useful or offered joy and fun to the person receiving the pack. At the end of the set time, the teams came together to reveal and present their backpacks – a pre-determined point system had been created, with points being allocated for particular items chosen or the reasoning behind choosing the item.
Following their presentation, the packs were carefully repacked and prepared for donation to Parkerville for distribution to mothers and young children in the Mothers and Toddlers group.
The day brought out the best of the counselling teams values – connection, creativity, community and teamwork were all used to embrace the friendly competition and to useful and meaningful packs.
