Personal Projects

Assisting members to socialise and support them with their projects means supporting them to pursue activities that help them maintain a sense of quality of life, intellectual stimulation, creative expression and personal development.

What are the boundaries?

How do you know whether to say yes or no to a member request? The following principles should guide you, and will also be provided to members so that they are aware of the limits of your role.

1. You are there to do activities with members, not for them. This service is about supporting socialisation and an active lifestyle for members rather than simply completing tasks on their behalf.

2. You must feel safe. If a Helper feels uncomfortable, it is not an acceptable activity, and it is OK for Helpers to say no to doing a certain activity with members.

3. If the activity requires a specialised professional skill set, members should seek that service from the appropriate professional, rather than from you. For example, you are not equipped to provide:

   • Repair/technical support for members’ devices

   • Landscaping/construction

   • Counselling/psychologist services

   • Meal provision/catering

4. You should only be operating equipment that is well-maintained and fit-for-purpose, for which appropriate personal protective equipment is available, e.g. secateurs should be appropriately sharpened and used with gloves. You should not use equipment that is unfamiliar to them or feels out of their capabilities.

5. You should not handle sensitive information about members, such as financial information or passwords.

6. If the activity involves one of the following services, you should not carry it out until you have completed the related training module with Lively and are following our policies and recommended practices for these activities:

   • Tech Help

   • Social Gardening

   • Help Around the Home

   • Transport

Developing projects with members

If your member has 'Personal Projects' listed as an activity on their support plan, in your first session, you can invite them to sit down and have a chat about any fun projects or activities they'd like to work on together.

You can work through this worksheet with the member to help prompt ideas about what they can do together.

Sometimes members aren't ready to do this straight away (they might have gotten out of the habit/mindset for forward planning), and that's absolutely fine! Here's a gentle way you can invite a member into the conversation, though:

"One of the things we can do together, if you'd like, is work together on any personal projects that you feel like getting off the ground. Would you be interested in going through a worksheet together and seeing if it sparks any ideas for you?"

Once you have completed the worksheet, take a pic and upload it with the member's session notes! The member can hold onto the hard copy for future reference. They might like to put it on their fridge!