Explore Specialist Advice
Supporting those who work in residential facilities
Explore Specialist Advice manages a dedicated network of support workers who work with parents, whānau, caregivers, and residential care providers. Their purpose is to improve wellbeing and quality of life for children with behavioural difficulties that are often linked to a diagnosis of autism or a learning disability. The team at Explore understands the challenges of this type of work and know that support workers sometimes need help themselves.
Having worked with us before, Explore asked Like-Minded to design and develop an online resource that could be accessed anytime, anywhere–as soon as they felt overwhelmed or were unsure what next steps they needed to take in their support worker role.
Making it accessible
As part of Explore’s commitment to supporting as many people as possible, the course needed to ensure a wide reach. The language and navigation needed to be kept simple. It needed to meet the needs of those with low literacy levels and be suitable for those for whom English is a second language.
The course is free to everyone and is launched directly from the Explore website. So, everyone with access to the internet can do it! No payment or login barriers!
Making it relatable
A group of fictional, illustrated support workers playing out realistic scenarios with fictional residents brings the learning to life throughout the course. The residents, Iosefa and Gemma, help the learners understand what it means to put the key concepts into practice in an environment that makes sense to them.
The course progresses at a steady pace and is delivered in smaller topics, so it doesn’t overwhelm those working through it. It’s easy to see progress and achieve realistic goals, and start and stop the course whenever needed. Good design sets up the learners for a successful outcome.
Blending resources
It’s not all about being online! Explore delivers a series of printable resources that assist caregivers with decision making and the development of vital skills. These resources were referred to in the course and were specifically incorporated in the activities. This helped the learners apply the concepts during the course, and they could use the same tools long after, too.
Celebrating using our skills to improve the lives of others
Like-Minded takes great pride in any project where our skills can be used to make a difference in the community. Our long-term partnership with Explore helps us regularly achieve that and helps us live out our ‘why’.
For Explore—in fact, for any repeat client—there is a financial benefit to developing the relationship and working on similar projects with different subject matter. By applying our experience and learning from the first project, we are generally able to bring down the cost ‘per course’. In this case, we reduced it by approximately 15 percent from the first course cost through reuse of existing (or similar assets) and applying them in new ways. Wins all around!
“The team at Like-Minded have been extremely professional and understanding throughout the process. The skills the team at Like-Minded have demonstrated have allowed us to focus on making the content suitable for the audience we are working with.”
Mark McHugh
Senior Behaviour Specialist – Registered Psychologist
Explore Specialist Advice NZ