Community Café Collaborations

Alliterative headlines…the newspaper and magazine dream!

This one wrote itself because we have some news to share about the collaborations that are happening in the ANLP community…

Since the lockdown started in March 2020, initially weekly and now twice a month, ANLP have been hosting a Community Café on Zoom.  It’s a place to come and chat, discuss…well, anything you want to discuss…and to give anyone who attends a chance to talk, vent, listen and learn…whatever you need to take from the group…

We’ve had people from the UK, Ireland, France, the USA, the Middle East and South Africa…

We feel it’s been an enormous success.  We feel it’s been generative…

We’ve had anywhere from 2 to 15 attendees…not big numbers! …and everyone has felt secure and comfortable in sharing their map of the world and their knowledge and learnings... 

Everyone is heard.  Everyone has a chance to speak….and what starts out with our opening question of “How has your week been?” leads into…well, take a look at some of the discussion topics and the outcomes…

COVID-19 Support Hub on the ANLP website. 

The “donations” of videos, blogs and coaching to support anyone affected (in any way shape or form) during the pandemic was started in the ANLP Community Café. 

Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC)

Michael Dunlop, Lynn Mckeown and Leanne McCafferty set up an NLP project to support the Social Care workers in Northern Ireland that has won huge praise for the information and sustenance of key workers in Northern Ireland…and we heard about it and supported it through the Community Café…

Youth Work/Support

Several attendees on the calls have discussed their work with disadvantaged and vulnerable children and young adults…and collaborated on how they can use NLP to support these people across their geographic areas.

Training NLP in a Virtual Environment

A request from the Café led to two ANLP Accredited Trainers, Tony  Nutley and Andy Coley, doing a webinar on the technology they and tips on successful NLP Training in a virtual environment… including how to ensure the safety of students and delegates, as far as possible, in a virtual environment.

Other Meeting Opportunities

Many attendees have made new friendships and taken part in others’ webinars, meetings and events.  Cornwall to South Africa, Ireland to Essex, France to Kent…the connections have been randomly generated, diverse, organic and magical.

Topics have included The NLP Conference, Marketing NLP Businesses, World Politics, Better Member Communication...Laughter...Mental Health, Dogs/Cats...Laughter...Books and Authorship, Education, NLP Applications, NLP Journeys (How individuals came to learn about NLP), NLP Transformations, How to…advertise, safely run 1-2-1 client meetings (using a willing neighbour’s garden…), “live” during lockdown, make the world a better place…, Societal Integration

…and have I mentioned laughter?

We have laughed (a lot), we have talked (a lot), we have shared (even more) and, speaking for myself, have come away with a new learning and perspective from every single Café chat…I have also seen a new connection and collaboration in every single discussion…even when only two people were on the call!

The motivation to run these café events has sometimes been less than easy…and yet every time, they have stimulated real deep thoughts, emotions and actions to be the difference that makes the difference.

To finish this piece, here’s a quote from Emma McNally on how this collaboration has a real impact…

“Also, re the videos that we created for the COVID resources... I had a person call me about their son-in-law who was doing an exam the next day... he had been an apprentice for 5 years and everything hinged on this one final exam (which he had failed before and was super anxious about). He literally had no time for a coaching session so pointed him in the direction of the videos and he watched mine and then Michael’s [Dunlop] anchoring one just before he went in to the exam and used it and felt great about it afterwards... Just wanted you to know that the resources are awesome and being used” Emma McNally 2/10/20

Thanks to everyone who has come along and contributed… and if you’re in the “neighbourhood”, please join us for our fantastic collaborative and generative voyage of discovery…twice a month (1st Tuesday 18:30 and third Wednesday 10:00)!