Setting boundaries

As a volunteer, you encounter a variety of situations and deal with different people's behaviour. This has its beautiful and fascinating sides. But it can also happen that you end up in an unpleasant situation. Then you have to deal with someone's behaviour that is close to your limits. Or even crosses it by, for example, making an appeal to you that you cannot or do not want to meet.

Suppose... 

• Someone asks you to advance the cost of groceries.
  Or, "Will you tell my neighbour that he bothers me...".
  Or: someone would like you to come for coffee every week but you don't want to.
  How do you react? 
• Someone always takes the floor and hardly gives you yourself space to say something too.
  Do you dare say anything about it?
• Someone wants you to do something that is actually outside your volunteer duties. So you can't. However, you don't want to disappoint that person. In this case, how do you indicate your boundary in a respectful way?
• Someone talks and acts in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable. How would you raise this?
  
  Sometimes it is difficult to figure out what boundaries you are dealing with. This does not always make dealing with them easy and it is all the more important to know how to recognise your boundaries. And can state them with confidence, without charge or tension and without hurting or angering the other person. This is how you stay motivated and maintain your 'job satisfaction' as a volunteer .
   
  Topics covered in this interactive workshop include:
• Exploring boundaries and the balance between proximity and distance;
• Dealing with boundaries: what makes it difficult sometimes, what can hold you back, what pitfalls or temptations you may encounter.
• Guarding boundaries: naming what you notice, assertiveness and saying no;
• Exchange experiences and pick up practical and directly applicable tools 
  
  This workshop will be conducted by:
  Freelance trainer Lies Willers.
  "I have years of experience in training people who, as professionals or volunteers, work in community organisations and in care & welfare. I prefer to work in a light, open manner. With commitment and enthusiasm, focusing on everyday practice, with the active input of the participants forming the basis. My aim is that in this workshop you gain (more) insight into your own behaviour and can learn from and with each other in a safe and pleasant working atmosphere".