The original and, some say, the single truly indispensable resource

The Strengths Cafe is an online publishing project sponsored by Innovative Resources.

find out more:

• view Strength Cards on IR's shop site

• view the Strength Cards Stickers on IR's shop site

• visit our 'Resources for Parents' page

The Strength Cards are also available in Japanese.

• visit our 'Resources for Teachers' page

<<return to top

<<return to top

Strength Cards Stories

Strength Cards: Our Great Stumble Into Publishing

The early 1990's were intensive times at St Luke's. St Luke's was established in 1979 through an initiative of the Anglican Diocese of Bendigo with the active support of the Uniting Church.

Programs and staff numbers grew rapidly through the 1980's and by the end of that decade there was recognition that our structures and philosophy of practice warranted reflection and evaluation. This was the time of much enthusiasm in the agency for the emergent ideas of solution-focused and narrative approaches to human service work.

With a very busy foster care program we were also much taken with intensive family services models that had been developed in the US . By the time funding was provided to run an intensive family services program ourselves in 1991, we had used many of the ideas from this smorgasbord of creative thinking to challenge our social work practice and create generic family worker roles-which at the time was widely regarded as a radical innovation. The energy and enthusiasm of St Luke's family workers at the time produced an organisational culture characterised by curiosity for any aids for better practice. We started a search for hands-on 'tools' or resources that our workers could use to build therapeutic conversations with client families that would create opportunities for significant change.

Assisted by several researchers, the search produced few positive results over many months. We had doubts about the usefulness of standardised tests which seemed to be all the rage in the U.S. Other tools lacked cultural relevance or were poorly designed-many were simply tatty photocopies of photocopies. In fact, the search for tools appeared to be so fruitless and elusive, it earned the nickname 'The Search for the Yeti'.

It was at this point that we thought it might just be possible to create our own tool. So knowing nothing about the worlds of publishing or printing, a small group of family workers sat down with a dictionary and produced a list of 48 words that we thought provided useful descriptions of people's strengths. While we had discovered plenty of tools that vividly described people's deficits, failings and pathology, from our knowledge of solution focused and narrative approaches we wanted to start with a tool to identify, mobilise and celebrate people's strengths as a primary resource for change.

Fortunately we had a staff member, John Veeken, who had a background in graphic art. John produced simple two colour illustrations to match each word and we had 500 sets of ' Strength Cards' printed for our family workers.

Without a business plan let alone a budget, this inauspicious foray into publishing could have easily died at birth. Fortunately other people saw the cards and liked them, and the history of Innovative Resources (as St Luke's publishing arm became to be known) is marked by a succession of remarkable people who have generously shared their wisdom and expertise. The story of our origins, however, is one we are happy to spread, not that we anticipate any organisations will want to emulate us. St Luke's has not done anything that any other organisation couldn't do. However, the continued success of Innovative Resources speaks volumes for the courage of management to let staff pursue their passion, carve out a distinctive niche and determine their strategies for building sustainability.

A Story of Hope

Marlene Bemelen, a family worker with St Luke's, has this story to tell:

'I was talking with a young woman who had been in a violent relationship and was thinking about returning to the relationship. I took out the Strength Cards and I said to her, "Think back to 12 months ago when you were living in that relationship and tell me what strengths you were using then to help you cope." She selected some of the cards. Then I asked her to pick the strengths she uses in her life now.

'We looked at the two selections.

'It was so revealing for us both to see that the strengths she picked for 12 months ago were all about supporting and caring for someone else, and enduring difficulty. Whereas the ones she picked now were all about positive self-esteem, developing and respecting herself.'

The Ultimate Challenge: Using St. Luke's Resources in Secondary Schools

Tricia Steele, Social Worker, Inglewood & Districts Community Health Services

Tricia works with a number of primary and secondary schools in Central Victoria. She talked recently about how she uses her St. Luke's resources with young people. One young girl, Mary, was seeking help with issues of family separation and family violence. She noticed The Bears on the desk during a counselling session and asked what they were for. When Tricia explained that they could be used to talk about what's happening in someone's life, Mary asked to have a go.

Tricia asked her to pick a Bear to represent each of her family members and to talk about her choices. Mary then decided to make a model of how she would like her family to be. She now uses the resources on her own initiative on a regular basis and says 'They help me so much to describe how it is at home. It's so hard to just talk.'

Mary even passed the message on to her friends and Tricia was delighted when a group of quite challenging kids actually asked if they could use the cards in class. She said they loved the following self-esteem activity:

Choose a Strength Card to represent yourself and introduce yourself to the group with conviction. For example 'I am.' and 'I am good at making things'. The cards are then put up in the middle of the circle and participants choose one to give to someone in the group who they see as having that strength. As well, the 'givers' provide an example of the person displaying that strength. If they have trouble doing this, they can ask for help from the group.

The kids said it was great to realise others had noticed their strengths. For an even greater challenge, how about trying this in a mixed group of teachers and students!

Strength Cards for Orienteers

Neville Bleakley is the Coordinator of the ACT Academy of Sport Orienteering team. In 1999 his squad of 10 young people aged between 16 and 25 years competed in the World Championships.

Neville has been using visualisation, positive self-talk, affirmations and relaxation with the team for some time. Members have an individual pre-competition 'routine' which they run through for physical and mental preparation. Affirmations form an important part of this and include statements like 'I am.' or 'I feel.' These statements can't just be pulled out of the ether but have to be true of the individual. As Neville says, the unconscious is not easily fooled.

He has found the Strength Cards and Strength Cards for Kids invaluable to this process. Prior to using the cards, the athletes had some difficulty articulating their strengths. However, Neville says they enjoy the graphics and humour in the cards and use them as prompts to enable them to more easily identify the strengths which belong to them.

Strong Graphics-A Great Strength

Diane Bonney is a nurse who offers her time and experience as a volunteer working in Tasmania with adults who have a variety of disabilities.

Diane recently approached the group coordinator with a new idea. She suggested that Innovative Resources' Strength Cards might be a useful and enjoyable tool for this group who meet once a week. The coordinator of the group was supportive of the idea and the cards were then introduced as catalysts for conversations about the various qualities that they represent.

Although the people in the group are working to develop stronger literacy skills, they all seemed to find the graphics and the concepts embodied in the cards accessible and enjoyable. Diane mentioned that this group loves anything new and fresh, but also relates well to things that are simple and fun.

Playing With Strengths

Jenny Bond tells of a parent's breakthrough in understanding about play

Jenny Bond is a family worker with the Ballina Byron Family Support Service in northern New South Wales. Her program, known as 'Early Years' is funded under the New South Wales government's 'Families First' initiative and aims to support families with children under five in discovering their strengths as parents. Jenny is one of the intrepid workers out there who ticked the box on the newletter address label indicating her willingness to share a story about how she is using the resources in her work. Here's Jenny's story:

Creative playgroups

'As part of the program, I run groups in creative play for parents and pre-school children. The purpose of these groups is for parents to learn about how children play and its importance in children's development and learning. The groups are an opportunity for parents to understand that there are different types of communication and about how adults can facilitate learning through play.

'Many of the families who come to the groups have worked with us on a one-to-one basis before and this is an extension of their learning. Others may have been identified by early childhood nurses as perhaps not making easy connections between play and learning.

'It can be difficult for some adults to be able to connect with and value play. Some seem unable to get back to the space where they could be in play or rediscover what they liked about it as children.

'I remember a particular group where the children ranged from about 18 months to five years old. At one point I spread the Strength Cards out and invited parents to select cards that they felt represented the strengths they had in connection to their child's play activities. A parent might select, for example, the 'Patience' card or the 'Enthusiastic' card.

'But there was one particular mother who came to the group with her two-year-old daughter. This mother did not want to select any card because she could not identify any strength in herself in relation to play. I gently challenged her about this and it gave rise to a discussion about what she did not like about play. She spoke about her dislike of the messiness of some play activities-the sloppy mud pies and the gooey slime!

'During the first half of the group the children were with a child care worker while I worked with the parents. The parents made play activities for the children. This particular mother was very comfortable fetching ingredients for the playdough but held back from the hands-on kneading! The children were then invited to come and enjoy the play activities that the parents had set up for them.

'The mother was frustrated by the fact that her daughter seemed to be circling the activities rather than diving in. It was at this point that the penny dropped for the mother as she made the connection that she and her daughter both felt the same way about messy play-that she modelled the dislike for her daughter. This was a big revelation for her.

'While this new understanding did not come directly as she used the cards, I do feel that the earlier discussion and reflection with the cards played a major role in opening up the deeper perception.'

Strengths on Farms

Nigel McGuckian, Rendell McGuckian Agricultural Consultants

In 2000 Nigel sent us some thoughts on using our products in his work with farming families throughout Australia.

He says that farm families gain strength and inspiration from the cards. They have been challenged, excited and stimulated by their use of Strength Cards and Strength Cards for Kids.

The cards have proved to be a non-threatening way of encouraging discussion about strengths, it is too easy for farming families to identify weaknesses and ignore their strengths. The cards help farming families to think about the benefits to the business of good self-esteem and communication skills. One farmer's response after identifying his strengths and having others pointed out to him was "That was the most meaningful exercise I have ever done."

Strength Cards lift productivity.

Lack of effective communication skills in farming families is a major barrier to business improvement. The traditional 'family business' structure in farming has some strengths but many weaknesses. Lack of communication can cause the farm business to grind to a halt. Decisions are made which may be resented, tensions build up and breakdowns in relationships can occur. The Strength Cards have been terrific for helping families to acknowledge each other's strengths and to build a more productive team.

Turning the Tide (1999)

A shared story from Kaye Dennis and Carmel Stevens

Turning the Tide is the Victoria's Drug Education strategy. A number of schools in a region are targeted each year. Core-teams are formed including teachers, parents and sometimes students. The teams attend a number of professional development days and are then able to implement the strategy in their schools.

Kaye Dennis has been using the St. Luke's resources in her training. The following activity has been fun and useful when groups of teachers and parents are from different schools and may not know each other. The Strength Cards for Kids are spread out and participants choose a card they like and which represents them. They are then asked to make groups of 3 or 4 without any instructions as to how to go about it. Participants are told to think of an issue in their school and asked how they would use the strengths they have chosen in a team effort to work through and resolve that issue. Kaye's activity provides a positive way of enabling people to look at an issue where there may be many different opinions about its resolution.

Carmel Stevens sent us this story of her participation in one of Kaye's training sessions.

'Isn't it awful being in room full of 'strangers' so to speak? Even though we were all teachers from the East Gippsland region, faces were unfamiliar.

The day was a Drug Education Professional Development session. It was obvious from the outset that participation was necessary for the day to be a success. Our facilitators, Kaye Dennis and Pam Mathieson could see that some familiarisation was needed. That's when the Strength Cards were scattered around the room and we were asked to select a card which best summed up our personality. Almost instantly 'strangers' were chatting to each other and swapping cards. Eventually everyone had made a happy choice. We then used the cards to list from most to least important the qualities needed for being a teacher. Yes you guessed it! The talk was spontaneous and it took at least 20 minutes of chatting, shuffling and comparing before the line of Strength Cards was in order.

I ordered a set of cards for my small school of 17 students. Tubbut Primary School (see picture above) is in Far, Far East Gippsland. Labelled the most remote primary school in Victoria, it is located about 120 kms north of Orbost and 30 kms from the NSW border. Access is by narrow and winding gravel roads and vast areas of National Park surround the small valley where we are located. The school is adjacent to the beautiful Deddick River which ultimately flows into the Snowy. The countryside is rocky, rugged, mountainous, stunning in every season.

I have been Head Teacher at Tubbut for 5 years and I love my job. Recently I have been involved in the Turning the Tide programme and in running parenting courses with fnding from Parentzone Gippsland. My new School Charter has a focus on the students' personal development by developing and fostering self-esteem. I find the possibilities within Strength Cards for Kids limited only by the imagination. I introduced my students to the cards by asking them to select their 2 best strengths. Again much purposeful and happy chatter. Then I asked each child to select 2 strengths that they would like to have - very interesting! I can see that the Strength Cards for Kids will be a fantastic springboard for engaging the children in a multitude of practical language activities. For example, two sets for playing Snap, ordering strengths, sorting them and writing about them.

I even tried them out at School Council. Meetings will never be the same. now that we know each other's strengths!

Carmel Stevens, Head Teacher, Tubbut Primary School, Victoria.

Kaye Dennis, Turning The Tide Co-ordinator, Department of Education in Gippsland, Victoria.

Strengths in Peer Education

Interview with Gillian Hume, Sacred Heart College, Kyneton, Victoria.

'.To help each person recognise his/her own preciousness, uniqueness, gifts and potential. To create an environment where each person feels accepted, valued and stimulated to further growth.'

From the 'College Aims and Philosophy' document of

Sacred Heart College in Kyneton, Victoria.

Many schools throughout Australia have inspiring mission statements and aims as educators. Much work and thought goes into capturing these ideals and visions in documents. And, as everyone knows, it is a far more difficult task to move these values out of documents and into the reality of everyday life at school.

One of the ways that Sacred Heart College in Kyneton, Victoria, attempts to enact the values of its mission statements is through its active Peer Support (Education) program. Educators have known for a long time now, that sometimes the best teachers and the best role models are peers.

Recently, we caught up with Gillian Hume who is a homeroom teacher for Year 10 at Sacred Heart College and a Peer Support facilitator. Gillian spoke about how she has incorporated the use of St Luke's cards and resources in her school's Peer Support (Education) program.

'We have a Peer Support program where Year 10 students are invited to play a part in helping Year 7 students to transition more smoothly into a secondary school environment. It helps to establish peer relationships between students and is an effective way of breaking down some of the fears that the younger students may feel.

'About a third to a quarter of Year 10s volunteer and they receive some training and support from teachers such as myself who are Peer Support facilitators. It can be a tremendous learning experience for both the older and younger groups of students,' said Gillian.

At Sacred Heart in Kyneton, each Peer Support facilitator mentors six Year 10 students via a series of meetings. Recently, Gillian met with 30 of the Year 10s, in five groups of six.

'I spread all the Strength Cards on the floor,' said Gillian. 'Each person was asked to select a strength and a corresponding sticker that they thought they had. Some people wanted the same card and valuable negotiation happened around this! Now each group had 6 different strengths and its own sheet of paper with the stickers on it. We then discussed how to plan the next session around the strengths of each team. My intention is to revisit these sheets after their next session with the Year 7s and ask each group how they felt these strengths were used,' said Gillian.

'At our next meeting the Year 10 students reported that their session with the Year 7s had been a bit difficult. They felt that they didn't really have their attention. With some gentle probing Gillian realised that the student Peer Educators had not really taken the time to define their roles or discuss how to utilise their strengths as a team.

"We then revisited the strengths they had identified earlier and discussed practical ways that they could draw on these,' said Gillian.

'One of my learnings from this was that it can be a "warm and fuzzy" to simply identify strengths. However, it is very important to work with students on how to implement those strengths.'

The posters produced by St Luke's Innovative Resources are also used at Sacred Heart College in Kyneton. During parent interview times, the posters 'Doing Hope', 'Doing Respect' and 'Labelling' are placed on the walls in the foyer as a way of expressing the schools values to the wider school community.

Strength Cards in Prison

Anne Deal has worked in education for many years and has used Innovative Resources' materials in a variety of settings. Recently Anne was working with inmates at Loddon Prison, Castlemaine (Central Victoria) teaching basic cooking and interpersonal skills. She found the Strength Cards very useful in this context. Working with small groups, Anne invited each person to select four or five cards that they felt identified some of the strengths they possessed. Those who found this a little difficult were then asked to work in pairs and select strengths for each other.

Anne was delighted that all of the prisoners were able to select strengths and once the initial reserve and skepticism were put aside, everyone seemed to really enjoy the process of identifying their strengths. Opportunities then arose for conversations that could focus on positive, self-esteem building messages. Anne commented on how vital this is in an environment where negative and undermining attitudes can so often be the focus. Not all of the group members chose to speak about the strengths they had chosen, but Anne was pleasantly surprised by the willingness with which most were able to speak of their strengths.

Anne commented that this was possibly because many of the prisoners were constantly receiving negative feedback and the opportunity to focus on something positive was a welcome respite from this negativity. Another angle is that possibly some had yet to acknowledge any faults! Anne also expressed delighted surprise at some of the less visible strengths that people in the group claimed as their own!

Strength Cards Go Multilingual  

'Within the next 50 years Spanish is expected to be the first language of 50 per cent of the population of the USA.'

Professional translator, Adriana Rozada

No, there has not been a proofreading error! That's a Swedish translation of the Strength Cards you're seeing!

The Swedish version of Strength Cards was published in response to considerable interest from Stefan Lidberg, an Assistant Head of Social Welfare in Landskrona, Sweden. Stefan did the Swedish translation and in doing so, sparked our interest in other language translations as well.

Now a Spanish translation of the cards and booklet has been completed. The Spanish translation is the work of professional translator, Adrinna Rozada. Adriana has done translation work all over the world, including Argentina, Peru, Spain and the United States.

Translating the cards has been a fascinating process, as it is difficult to find equivalents for some of the concepts and words. Take for example, the word 'Sporting'. As you know, in English, this carries overtones of 'fair play' and 'taking things with good humour'. It doesn't necessarily imply 'good at sport'. Imagine trying to capture the subtle differences between 'warm', 'caring', 'close', 'friendly' and 'loving'. And when you delve into the meanings and subtle connotations of words, you uncover the subtle differences in perception that people have about words-even when they speak the same language!

But one thing is for sure-everyone has strengths-even if we call them by different names and conceive of them differently in different cultural contexts.

Thanks, Stefan and Adriana, for your enthusiasm and great work.

Loss, Grief and Children-The 'Reach Out For Kids' Experience

By Anne Vranisan, Agency Coordinator, Reach Out for Kids Foundation

'Sometimes children can identify their sadness over a particular event quite easily but are confused about their parents' reactions.'

The family counsellors at Reach Out for Kids Foundation (ROK) in Melbourne's Nunawading find that around half of their case-loads are made up of children who are experiencing loss and grief. Very rarely is this as a result of the death of one of their parents but rather it is due to separation and divorce.

Estimates in the U.S.A. are that whilst only 5% of children will lose a parent to death before they are 18, some 20% will experience the divorce of their parents, and the figures are similar in Australia.

Lack of rituals

Leaders in the loss and grief field state that the responses to the two situations are indistinguishable. Indeed, loss due to separation/divorce is thought to be more complicated because of a number of factors, including the lack of rituals available to identify it as a significant family event. Also, the lack of acknowledgment of the loss by those around may prolong the grieving process.

Often referrals come to ROK because of a child's behaviour difficulties at school. Children are particularly at risk of not having their voices heard and thus their pain is often communicated by their behaviour.

Children's responses to loss are highly influenced by their age and stage of development and of course this factor impacts on intervention strategies. Also, there are frequently major differences in responses to the loss event between parents and children. This, combined with individual family member's unique responses, adds to the complexity and can lead to misunderstandings which get in the way of the grieving process.

In addition, a proportion of children experiencing separation/divorce will have been victims of domestic violence and are not only experiencing loss and grief but also trauma.

Telling the stories of loss

Not surprisingly, the grieving process is facilitated by the identification and expression of feelings. Telling the story relating to the loss is important; it allows for the ventilation of feelings as well as for the clarification of issues.

Solution focused /strength based approaches to counselling children are very appropriate in these situations. The aim is for the child to tell their story and identify the associated feelings whilst highlighting the child's coping mechanisms and supporting their skills in managing the loss and associated grief.

At Reach Out for Kids, the St Luke's Bear Cards and Strength Cards are essential parts of the counselling process. They are key examples of ways to engage children and assist them in the telling of their stories while allowing for children's developing language and cognitive abilities.

Grief counselling with St Luke's cards

I frequently use the Strength Cards as a means of engaging with the child at a first session. The simple exercise of asking the child to select four or five cards out of the pack that say something special about them (and the ensuing discussion) can elicit a lot of information about what is important to them; their interests, skills, hobbies and so on. This information can be used later to develop interventions (comfort strategies, for example) when the sad feelings overwhelm them.

The Bears are also an essential tool as trust develops. ROK counsellors have witnessed the unfolding of key loss events such as being told that Dad is going to live elsewhere, using The Bears to represent the different members of the family. Laying out these various bear characters on the table can lead to further discussion about how each member may have been feeling. The idea that we all have our own unique responses to loss and grief can then be introduced.

This is a powerful intervention that gives the child a voice on a situation that they may have previously been silent about. Although often painful for parents to witness, this gives them valuable information about their child's perceptions and hopefully, insight into aspects of the child's current behaviour.

Tracking feelings

Feelings can be tracked with The Bears by asking the children to select a bear to represent how they felt when the loss occurred and how they feel now. Hopefully, there has been some change and the child's coping strategies have been discussed and supported, but if not, the level of distress can be identified. Comfort strategies can then be developed when the 'Missing Dad/Mum Bears' are visiting.

However, it is vital in loss and grief work that the pain of the loss is acknowledged and that the solution finding is done in a way that does not cut across a full exploration of feelings.

Sometimes children can identify their sadness over a particular event quite easily but are confused about their parents' reactions. In this situation parents can be asked to select their own bear cards and children can then see that their parents' feel sad or angry too. This can promote a better understanding of each other's perspectives and a fuller discussion of the parents' feelings; something which the parents may not have given themselves permission to do before.

At ROK The Bears continue to be an essential part of loss and grief work. Without exception they work well with children and adults alike. They seem to provide a non-threatening means of tapping into powerful emotions which can then be discussed, normalised and related to the grieving process. The Strength Cards are useful in identifying skills that can be used to assist in solution-finding. But perhaps more importantly, they provide a means for accessing information about a child and their world in a way that promotes self-esteem and is enjoyable for both the counsellor and child alike.

Sarah-Jane-You Are a Star!

Sarah-Jane Parkinson, a Grade One and Two teacher at Springvale South Primary School, is a star. She is a star because she knows how to make each child in her class feel special.

Magic happens

It all began with an idea that a colleague of Sarah's, Judy Patterson, had introduced into her classroom. Judy called it the 'Star of the Week' - a simple but delightful opportunity for each child in the classroom to be named this week's star. Sarah loved this idea and when she was introduced to Innovative Resources' Strength Cards, she saw a way of developing it into a very effective and fun process for children to learn more about valuing themselves and others.

Magic now happens every week in the Grade One and Two class at Springvale South Primary School. Here is how the magic is made:

Sarah has a special, magical and shiny box with all the children's names in it. On Friday afternoon, one child's name is selected randomly from the box to be the star for the coming week. All weekend the child knows that it will soon be 'their' week. On Monday morning the child stands up in front of the class and is crowned with the star's crown (there is a different crown for the boys and for the girls). The child then wears this crown all week in class.

Star of the week notice board

Next, the child is invited to tell the class all about themselves - their likes and dislikes and particularly things that the rest of the class may not know. 'I am new at the school and this is such a great way for me to get to know the children and their families,' says Sarah-Jane. This news about themselves that the child has chosen to share with the class is then written up and placed on one half of a special 'Star of the Week' notice board. In the middle of the board is a big star with a photo of the child in the centre. The rest of the children in the class are then asked to say what they most like about the person. These comments, often in single words or simple phrases, are placed on the second half of the board.

Strengths-based vocabulary

Perhaps you are wondering how such young children could have the vocabulary to comment on the qualities and values of others? This is where the Strength Cards come in. Sarah selects about 20 of the cards and holds each one up to the class and asks everyone if this card is right for the star. If the class thinks that it is, Sarah-Jane asks them to try and say why.

'This is very valuable,' Sarah-Jane says, 'because the children are learning to notice and express the strengths that they perceive in others. To begin with, many of the children seemed to randomly choose cards or were unable to talk about why they had selected a particular card. But now they are developing a vocabulary that enables them to talk about the specific qualities that they value in the star'.

Five friends, five strengths

Then the star selects five friends. Each of these friends is asked to select a Strength Card for the star. 'Choose very carefully,' Sarah-Jane tells them. 'Only choose a card that you think is really true for that person.' Once again she asks them to say why they have chosen a particular strength.

Star of the week initiation

Sarah-Jane has developed a small ritual around this process. Imagine that the star's name is Elizabeth and a friend has chosen the 'Honest' card for her. The friend would then give the card to Elizabeth saying, 'Here you are Elizabeth. I think that you are honest.' The star must then say 'Thank you.' In this way, the children learn how to both give and receive a compliment. The cards are then blu-tacked to the board for the week. 'I think of this time when the child is crowned and honoured as their 'star of the week' initiation,' says Sarah-Jane.

Special book

Another feature of the 'Star of the Week' program is a special book that is created for the child. At the beginning of the year every student drew a picture of themselves and this becomes the first page of their 'star of the week' book. The next page is a picture of the child drawn by Sarah-Jane. Then there are two pages, also created by the children at the beginning of the year, about themselves and about their unique family. The final pages are made up of enlarged photocopies of the five Strength Cards that were selected by the five friends.

The child is then able to take this book - brimming with their wonderful qualities- home for one week. ' The parents love it; sometimes I receive phone calls asking if the book can stay at home one more night because Nana is coming to dinner and she simply must see it!' says Sarah-Jane. Once the book comes back to school it is displayed with the other 'star of the week' books on a special table. Anyone who wishes to read one of the books must ask the permission of that particular person. In this way the ownership of each book rests with the child.

Fairy-dust of good feeling

Hearing Sarah speak of the shining faces of each child as his or her qualities are noticed and honoured, it is almost possible to see, and definitely possible to sense, the glittering fairy-dust of good feeling that fills her classroom. What a gift this is: to let a child experience themselves as a star, not because they excel at maths or reading (of course, these are wonderful things) but simply because of who they are.

Ideas for Teaching and Researching

Kathy Landvogt has sent us her stories about using  Innovative Resources' products in her work. She uses the cards for many different purposes and the activities she describes can easily be adapted for a variety of different settings. Here's a list of some of the purposes for which Karen uses our cards and stickers:

• Ice-breaker, learning names,
• Group bonding,
• Self-awareness,
• Self-expression,
• Self-appreciation,
• Risk-taking in graduated steps,
• Goal-setting for subject/session,
• Expressing feelings,
• Reflecting feelings, and
• Analysing purposes of intervention.

Strength Cards Activities

Spread the Strength Cards face-up on the floor in the centre of the room. Ask members to walk around the cards examining them and to choose the one which best describes a strength they have which they have already shown to others in this subject/course. Members return to their seats and take turns around the group to say their name, their strength and why they chose it.

The cards are returned to the floor and participants use the same process to describe a strength they have which they have not yet revealed in the subject/course and are prepared to reveal here.

The final round with the Strength Cards uses the same process to name a strength they would like to develop during this subject.

The next step in the activity is done in pairs. Group members take turns to say how they felt during the activity. Their partner listens and reflects back.

The final stage is a whole group exercise with butchers paper or white board in which the facilitator draws out in discussion the purposes of the activity (drawing, for example, on the above list).

.And a helping hand from The Bears

Kathy also uses The Bears when teaching Helping Skills as away of exploring empathy. The students use The Bears cards to help them identify a range of possible feelings and to expand their ideas about them. Students also find The Bears useful as prompts for role-plays. Sometimes Kathy will ask them to think of a time when they have been in transition or crisis. They are asked to pick four cards to depict how they felt at the beginning, in the middle, at the end of the crisis and finally one for how they feel about it now. The students then talk about the situation using their chosen cards. Kathy finds using the cards in these ways also models the practice of Helping Skills.

Community Living Programme

Kathy has used The Bears and the I Can Monsters in her evaluation of the Community Living Programme, a service which supports young adults with learning difficulties to live independently in the community.

After consultation with staff, Kathy chose about 15 Bears and 10 I Can Monster cards to use in interviews with the programme participants. The Bears were presented at the beginning of the interview and participants were asked to choose a Bear to represent what it was like when they first came to the programme. How did they feel then? Participants were asked to name the feeling. Next they chose a card to represent how they felt at their first meeting.

The responses have enabled Kathy to gain a sense of the success or otherwise of the participants' engagement with the programme. She also found that the lack of words on the cards enabled the interviewees to identify their emotional states more readily. Finally Kathy used the I Can Monsters at the end of the interview asking -What is the most important thing you CAN do at CLP? What do you still want to be able to do (that you haven't yet been able to do)?

Kathy Landvogt

Social Work Tutor, University of Queensland

Drawing from the Well

Lynne Kennedy from 'Skillbuilders-for people who parent', relates an inspiring story about how she recently used St Luke's Strength Cards together with the powerful metaphor of 'the well' as a team building tool.

'Not long ago we used the Strength Cards as part of a team building exercise for a childcare centre in Melbourne. The ten childcare workers at the centre had originally come from two centres which had recently amalgamated. They wanted to get to know each other better and create a cohesive unit.

'The Strength Cards were an important part of our team building exercises. At one point we laid the cards on the floor and invited everyone to identify a strength for each of the other people in the team. In this way, each person had nine strengths identified for them.

'Then we spread the cards on the floor again and asked each person to select two or three strengths that they felt they brought to the team. We stood in a circle and I placed a hoola hoop in the centre. Each person talked about the strengths they had chosen and then they placed the cards inside the hoop.

'We reflected upon the hoop as a 'well' or a 'pool' of strengths that the team could draw upon. There inside the well for all to see, were the many strengths that this team had at its disposal. It was a very powerful and affirming experience for this team to take away with them.'

Strength Cards in Fiji

Pat Jewell is the Manager of 'Personal Safety: a Protective Behaviours Program.' Auspiced by the Children's Protection Society, the program is all about promoting:

•  Feelings of self-worth

•  Assertiveness

•  a belief and trust in oneself

•  Empowering people

•  Self-support

•  Support of others

•  Problem-solving skills

•  the ability to identify personal safely skills, and

•  Being in control of one's life

Early this year she spent a month in Fiji working with the Department of Social Welfare in Suva. Funding was provided through AusAID to provide a program called 'Personal Safety Strategies for Vulnerable Children and Train the Trainer'.

This is her report:

"I worked with 16 wonderful Fijian and Indian workers (10 of whom were from Residential Homes), Welfare Officers from the five District Officers and one worker from the Department of Social Welfare headquarters in Suva.

The first part of the training was the introductory level of Personal Safety: a Protective Behaviours Program - adapted for cultural relevance and accessibility. At the end of the 3 days training each participant was able to use the concepts and strategies taught in this level of their own lives and with the families and children in their care.

The second part of the training involved working in each of the residential homes over two days, observing and assisting the workers in implementing what they had learnt in their training. During the training, I used some of your resources with great success. The trainees found The Bears cards a good place to start when trying to find words for feelings. The Strength Cards and Strength Cards for Kids were used when talking about self-esteem and self-talk. Participants used the cards to identify strengths they had as a worker and as a person.

Those who completed the first level of training then had to create some activities for the children with whom they worked in the residential homes. The concepts being taught included helping children identify their inside feelings (emotions) and their outside feelings (body signals) in different situations and whether they felt safe or unsafe with that feeling. Emphasis is on the idea of feeling safe and on understanding the concept of 'self-talk' and whether yours is helpful or unhelpful to you. And if your self-talk is unhelpful what can you do to make it helpful?

The trainees used the St. Luke's materials in four Homes in Fiji with boys and girls of varying ages. Most had been abused or neglected or were offenders.

Dikusha Home for Girls (Methodist)

The activities here included using the Strength Cards as prompts to enable the girls to identify their feelings about different situations through scenarios. For example, "You are walking home from school. It is the last day of term. How do you feel?"

The I Can Monsters were used when discussing issues around "do I feel safe?" and to help explore the idea of self-talk, i.e. "what can I say to myself in these situations?"

Mahaffey Drive Home for Girls (Salvation Army)

The activities included one about feelings - about being in the group - about being in the home. The Bears were used as prompts to help the girls find words for feelings. In another activity, Strength Cards for Kids were used to help the girls find words that they could use to feel safe again if they were in a situation where they were feeling unsafe.

Boys' Centre

These boys did not speak English so the Strength Cards were translated into Fijian. However, one group used the Strength Cards for Kids pictures only to answer questions about their feelings and self-talk after scenarios were read out to them. The boys also chose The Bears stickers to represent a particular feeling and wore them proudly on their name-tags.

Veilomani Boys Home

The 16-18 year olds at Veilomani used the Strength Cards for Kids to identify their own strengths. None of the children had been involved in any group work before and had certainly not been asked to talk about their feelings this way. They were quite excited but also a bit shy. Overall I think the children found The Bears easiest to relate to, possibly because of the graphics."

Thanks to Pat for this story. It's exciting to think that strength-based work has a place in so many parts of the world.

Seriously optimistic ideas for using our ever-popular Strength Cards

Strength Cards: Born 1992, Still Going Strong!

Strength Cards are the original therapeutic tool that initiated St Luke's into the world of publishing. Since they were first published in 1992, Strength Cards has been reprinted eight times, well over 25,000 sets have been sold world wide and they have been translated into Swedish, Japanese, Spanish with more translations planned.

And with only minor modifications from time to time Strength Cards continue to be one of Innovative Resources' best-sellers. Why has such a simple idea proved to have such enduring popularity?

The obvious answer is because for many people: they work. Strength Cards simply demonstrate how an artefact with minimalist design can create opportunities to build conversations in different and profound ways. And they can be used successfully by diverse groups of people in diverse situations, with no prior training whatsoever. Some aspects of the Strength Cards that enable them to work so well include:

• The addition of graphics to words in order to magnify the power of both;

• Colour and engaging, quality design which make the materials more accessible and easy to relate to;

• A simplicity of content and presentation that increases the array of possible applications.

• The use of plain English in preference to jargon and pretentious language.

• High production standards for the printed materials which carry the implicit message: 'We have gone to this much trouble because we think you are really important'.

• Their broad cultural relevance, durability and reasonable price.

• The use of a user-friendly, card pack medium, which is easy to transport, can be employed in many ways, and which enables cards to be handled and shared by many people at the same time.

• Their use of humour which is a great catalyst for change.

• Their use of a strengths-based approach which recognizes that (with little prompting) it is easy and painless to talk about our strengths.

Possible Applications

Our files at Innovative Resources are full of stories from creative people who have invented ways of using Strength Cards to suit their style of working. Here are some examples of their use and some of the themes the cards enable us to explore. But remember: because there are no rules, you are completely free to use them (respectfully, of course) in any way you choose.

The Audience Question

An incredibly profound question that we discovered early on (and which sits brilliantly with Strength Cards) goes something like this:

'What would those people who know you well say were your creative strengths?'

The value of this strengths question is that it immediately introduces another person's perspective or voice into the conversation. This 'cyber audience' invites the imagination of significant others, and turns a dyad into a triad often with powerful effect.

'People who know you well' can be substituted for 'loved ones', 'colleagues', 'family', or particular persons like 'your favourite teacher', 'your counsellor' or 'your parents'. Sometimes we might use the term 'a special person', leaving the choice quite open. For this reason these sort of question are often called 'the special person question'.

When working with adolescents or young people where there is conflict in the home, asking what a significant grandparent might say often capitalises on a powerful and enduring relationship that can be overlooked in the heat of battles with parents.

The Audience Question evokes the imagination of highly regarded others, and for some people this approach frees them from the self-consciousness of naming their own strengths. After years of using this question in workshop presentations I