December is a time for thinking and reflecting on Appreciating People’s journey in the last 12 months. It has certainly been a quieter year for producing resources than the previous year. In 2017, we published Number One with the Canal and River Trust; Appreciating Church in partnership with the United Reformed Church, Methodist Church, Society of Friends and Congregational Federation; a second edition of Taste of AI; and Reflections.
In November 2018 we published a Reflections reprint, only 12 months after its launch at the first national Learning from Excellence conference. In March 2018 the micro journal Three Good Things was launched. This was in response to customer feedback that the existing ‘three good things’ element contained in Reflections was ‘too good to write in’!!
July saw Appreciating People contributing to the latest Appreciating Church product, More than Welcome – a card game to help churches develop a welcome strategy and the year ended with Appreciating People contributing to the Ethos publication Spring.
Having really enjoyed the collaboration last year with two wonderful and skilful editors and authors – and Jay S Levy and Robin Johnson, Suzanne contributed a chapter to their book Cross-cultural dialogues on Homelessness, which launch in USA and London this year. And then in the lovely warm summer we got to host both of them here in Liverpool; it was delightful showing Jay and his wife around Liverpool and the Beatles museums, and deepening our conversations.
Here is a link to a video of Jay talking more about this work. A few weeks later Robin and his wife arrived, and we facilitated him sharing his extensive knowledge of PIEs in the UK at two seminars – in Blackpool and in Liverpool.
- Diversity in new projects including Special Needs Education with Essex County Council, AI training for Hertfordshire County Council Children’s Services Newcastle Adult Safeguarding board AI training and a GP retention project for Lincolnshire NHS.
- Another trend has been the invitation to deliver workshops at both UK and international conferences this has included Vermont, Texas, Amsterdam, and in UK Worcester, Herefordshire and Birmingham. A trend that looks like to continue in 2019
- Emergence of a potentially major new client with a potential for expansion. In September 2018 we delivered a two-day review programme for HM Prisons fast track senior management programme and in November we started a major AI project for HMP Hindley. We are now receiving interest from other prisons.
- We’ve seen an increase in online book and training pack sales. This is partly due to our AI training approach encouraging self sustaining communities of AI practice within organisations where partners bulk buy resources to support internal AI training.
2018 has seen the continuation of our AI training with our Appreciating Church partners and with Learning from Excellence hospitals and health trusts. Reflecting on the year it has become clear that new trends are emerging in our work:
For 2019 we are looking forward to the World AI Conference in Nice where Suzanne will be giving with our Learning from Excellence partners one of the key note presentations and Tim with our US and UK partners will be delivering a workshop on the appreciative education projects. This conference will also see the launch of Appreciating People’s first app Three Good Things – an android-based app developed by the amazing Liverpool Studio School students. There will be more information about this new venture in future blogs
Best wishes for the festive season and have a great 2019.
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