10th July 2015
Call for applications to the Winston Churchill Memorial Travelling Fellowship (WCMT)
Winston Churchill was a great and talented man. On his death, the travelling fellowship scheme was set up in his memory to support British citizens, of any age and from any profession, to travel somewhere else in the world to learn something that was relevant to their personal or professional community and then bring that knowledge back and share it with others. Every year the trustees decide on a range of categories to guide the application process.
This is the second year where ‘Early intervention and prevention’ is a category. The WCMT is looking for people like health visitors to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to do something that will enhance their own professional knowledge and skills and make a difference to the people they work with, or the wider professional community and society in general.
I was fortunate enough to be awarded a travelling fellowship in 2012 and travelled to Australia to find out more about MECSH (Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home visiting) and the parent education child development programme ‘Learning to Communicate.’ It was a fantastic experience and I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to learn about the programme first-hand from the people who developed it, the research team who evaluated it and the child and family health nurses who are using it as the framework for their work with vulnerable families. As it fits so well with the partnership plus level of health visiting, the MECSH programme (including Learning to Communicate) is now being used in Essex, Plymouth, Somerset and Jersey, and other organisations are expressing an interest in learning more about it. I can’t take the credit for the roll out but I am involved in establishing a MECSH UK Community of Practice.
The award covers the cost of your travel, accommodation and living expenses and you are expected to be away for 4- 8 weeks. You can travel to more than one country if you need to explore more than one way of addressing a particular problem or issue. You have to demonstrate how you will share what you have learnt with other British citizens on your return and you also have to write a report documenting your experiences. If you want to see my report just google ‘Learning how to communicate learning to communicate’.
The details about the application process are on the website www.wcmt.org.uk and the closing date is 22nd September 2015.
If anybody wants further information or help with filling in the application form, I am happy to do my best to help. Please contact me at [email protected].
Good Luck!
Best wishes Catherine Lowenhoff
