Teaching Skills for Life Through the Joy and Magic of Theatre and Arts

Business and Community - Project Shine

funforlife is launching a new scheme for companies wishing to develop their employees' emotional intelligence, and at the same time, give something back to their communities. In January, we ran a taster session (hosted by Oracle and sponsored in part by TCS). Thanks to all the business leaders who took part in the session and the evaluation. The project is currently in development and will be launched in 2007.

Project Shine is based on a simple premise: you don't have to be born bright to shine. Your IQ is something you're born with, but Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is something you can nurture. Clarity, optimism, resilience, open-mindedness, warm-heartedness and focus are qualities that define the individuals we want to work with, the ones we respect and admire. The ones, in short, who Shine.

Employment research has found that formal education supplies us with enough knowledge to get us onto the employment ladder, but the biggest influence on subsequent success is our Emotional Intelligence (EQ).  Harvard University's research on science students, conducted over decades, has shown that EQ is about four times more influential than IQ on career success and personal influence. But EQ is still not on the school curriculum.

How will the project work?

Stage One involves intensive training for companies. We do practical exercises to develop employees' EQ:  key life skills such as leadership, communication, listening, managing stress and anger, self-expression and the ability to step back and see the bigger picture. Then we show them how to pass these skills on to others.

Stage Two is where employees work with professional facilitators to deliver mini Shine workshops to young people. This benefits both the community and the employees, as teaching someone else is the best way to really learn it for yourself!

For companies who would like to be involved in a smaller way, there will also be an opportunity to help support the project financially by booking the staff training workshops without having to commit to the second stage of the project.

To find out more about Project Shine, please contact Heather Angel:

heather@funforlife.org.uk

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