ABSTRACT
I am a solution focused (SF) coach and trainer from Singapore. I was approached by the superintendent of a residential care home in Singapore that serves children and teenagers either who are abandoned or whose families were not able to take care of them. The superintendent shared his concerns regarding the care of these children as well as the staff who manage the home. In Asia, there is a lot of negative stigma and shame associated with abandoned and neglected children. Often, these children develop extremely negative self-beliefs and many become delinquents. And the staff, if not properly trained, can often perpetuate these negative attitudes. His concern centred on 12 teens in his care, who were struggling with confi dence issues and at times were disruptive and problematic. In our initial session, I explored his best hopes from our meeting and how he hoped it would make a difference. Being solution focused trained himself, he expressed that he wanted some kind of training or program to help build confi dence in the 12 teens he mentioned and he wanted the staff to learn how to relate to the teens in a way that brought out the best in them. He was interested in developing a shared philosophy of care with all staff that would be solution focused and wanted it to permeate his institution and positively impact the children. He had also heard about adventure training, and wondered if this could make a positive difference for these 12 youths.
