I can't recommend the Slingababy course highly enough for those wishing to deepen their understanding of many aspects of carrying consultancy. I had completed two other consultancy courses prior to Slingababy and I felt that Lorette helped me widen my view - a liberating experience! I feel much more empowered to work with families now and empower them in turn. Slingababy helped me understand the consultant/client relationship in a more rounded way and was thought-provoking at every turn, forcing me to be fearless in appraising myself and my skills, essential for making necessary changes. I love being part of the Slingababy community and look forward to the day when getting to the CPD workshops is easier for me - I'm greedy for more!
The Slingababy course is the third carrying consultant course that I have done. I would highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn more about supporting people in their carrying journey.
The freedom to explore different solutions to problems and the different ways of working have really added to my toolkit and challenged the way I think.
I find the continuing online support invaluable, and am looking forward to attending the regular CPD courses where possible.
Studying with Slingababy was an amazing experience and then there's all the online support afterwards from the Slingababy consultants and twice annual meet ups. The course itself is thorough, fascinating, fun and full of revelations.
The Slingababy method of teaching is wonderful in that Lorette & Jody have a great deal of knowledge/experience, their methods of delivering information are clear, visual and are in followable/teachable steps. I appreciated the way that we are taught different methods for using each type of sling so that we have options to tailor demo's to a persons ability or situation.
What really struck me about Lorette is that she has a unique way of speaking: with incredible directness and kindness combined. It is a wonderful skill and very few people that I know have this quality to this level.
The Slingababy course is not a conventional sling consultancy course, it's so much more! It's truly inspirational. Lorette's and Jody's passion and ethics shine through in everything they do and it's contagious! Hence the thriving warm community of Slingababy consultants, it's more than that... It's a big family ready to help in your journey.
I don't know how they do it but no matter how much or how little previous experience you have, no matter whether it's a hobby or a profession for you... The Slingababy course is an inflexion point in anyone's life... You will leave after the intense 4 days truly inspired, empowered and believing in yourself and with a great toolset to make this world a tiny bit better.
Growing school
Slingababy has grown a lot since we posted similar news 3 years ago!
We now have over 500 consultants, over 100 peer supporters, and now we are even training feeding and carrying advocates. We have travelled overseas, we have had people joining us from all over the world with more than 20 nationalities represented within our consulting community.
Whilst this is fantastic news for babies everywhere, we want to ensure we can keep up with looking after you after your training, to the same high quality standard we’ve always strived for. This means that, despite trying our hardest to keep our prices down, we are going to need to increase them slightly. The consultancy course package (plenty more than the 4 day course!) will now be £575 and the one day courses will be £100. We can still facilitate payment plans, so do not be afraid to ask!
Good night 2017 and good morning 2018!!!
First of all we want to wish everyone a wonderful year ahead, full of love, full of connection, full of growth, full of learning, full of laughter, full of life!
2017 has been a busy year and 2018 will likely be just the same which makes us very happy.
So here are the stats:
- We now have 401 consultants, 117 of them were trained in 2017. They are spread over 6 continents and are from 20 countries!
- 17 consultants completed their training by receiving enough positive feedback from their customers and by submitting a project that benefited the wider community.
- We trained 55 Peer supporters
- We ran 17 consultancy courses
- We ran 4 CPD (Continuing Professional Development) workshops for free for our existing consultants.
- We had 2 social get-togethers, one of them being a week long camp for our families.
- We had too many interactions on our Facebook group to actually count them!
- We opened our sister branch in New Zealand and they trained 11 consultants!
- We offered over £3000 worth of vouchers for 2018 during our yearly Christmas Competition.
Learning and growing, how about marketing?
At Slingababy, we do take a lot of pride in how we support our existing consultants. Once the course is completed, the support is delivered in three main areas: a very active Facebook support group, constant growth of the course and Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Explaining how these three key elements work always feel like we’re blowing our own trumpet, and in a world where confidence and arrogance are sometimes confused, it is a step we struggle to make public. So putting our big pants on, we have this blog post for you!
The Slingababy Consultants Facebook group is a place that we like to qualify as the best place on the internet. It has nearly 400 members. That is 400 people who have the same passion for supporting families. Questions are always welcome, and the answers bring a new dimension to our learning. We sometimes go on a tangent because both learning, carrying and humans are complex topics that are intertwined in a manner just as complex. Learning and growth are encouraged, whether as an active participant or as a by-stander. The members of this group one day decided to call themselves a family and the term stuck. The Slingababy family is a supportive, encouraging environment. It is a place where falling and making mistakes brings deeper learning, whilst being supported back up by the great hug that is this family. A clip that we recently shared in our group and that, you too, may enjoy summarises this approach.
The Slingababy course is nearly 5 years old! We have been very lucky that we have had the opportunities to allow the course to grow in many directions, to fine tune the content and the delivery. Recently the very first attendee came again to re-sit the course. This is something we not only allow but encourage as we know how one can only learn what one is ready to learn, and this will evolve over time. It was such a proud moment to see from her eyes how far we had travelled down this path. We do encourage our consultants to share what they feel could be improved as well as doing our own reflective practice. Learning and growing are not linear paths, and the three key elements (Facebook group, course and CPD) feed into each other to make Slingababy the truly special experience that it is.
And it brings us to the Continuing Professional Development or CPD that we offer. Once you’ve completed the course, you get invited to attend two weekends a year. That is four workshops for free, every year! The topics are varied. We have covered many subjects: from direct sling use, to updating our teaching practice, to understanding the varied customers and how we can adapt to increase accessibility, to looking at the physical side of carrying for both children and adults, to understanding further about mental health, and also about general business skills. The latest session took place in October and one of our amazing consultants is the Marketing Manager at Ergobaby UK, Amanda Loveday. She came to inspire us and give us some skills towards more effective marketing.
We definitely needed this session and this blog post is about trying to make use of these new skills. We learnt about calls to action, so if you liked what you read here, about what we offer, if you would like to look into what we do further, I would like to invite you to check our Facebook reviews to see what our consultants think of their experience, and from there you may check our website too.
The Slingababy Consultants Facebook group is a place that we like to qualify as the best place on the internet. It has nearly 400 members. That is 400 people who have the same passion for supporting families. Questions are always welcome, and the answers bring a new dimension to our learning. We sometimes go on a tangent because both learning, carrying and humans are complex topics that are intertwined in a manner just as complex. Learning and growth are encouraged, whether as an active participant or as a by-stander. The members of this group one day decided to call themselves a family and the term stuck. The Slingababy family is a supportive, encouraging environment. It is a place where falling and making mistakes brings deeper learning, whilst being supported back up by the great hug that is this family. A clip that we recently shared in our group and that, you too, may enjoy summarises this approach.
The Slingababy course is nearly 5 years old! We have been very lucky that we have had the opportunities to allow the course to grow in many directions, to fine tune the content and the delivery. Recently the very first attendee came again to re-sit the course. This is something we not only allow but encourage as we know how one can only learn what one is ready to learn, and this will evolve over time. It was such a proud moment to see from her eyes how far we had travelled down this path. We do encourage our consultants to share what they feel could be improved as well as doing our own reflective practice. Learning and growing are not linear paths, and the three key elements (Facebook group, course and CPD) feed into each other to make Slingababy the truly special experience that it is.
And it brings us to the Continuing Professional Development or CPD that we offer. Once you’ve completed the course, you get invited to attend two weekends a year. That is four workshops for free, every year! The topics are varied. We have covered many subjects: from direct sling use, to updating our teaching practice, to understanding the varied customers and how we can adapt to increase accessibility, to looking at the physical side of carrying for both children and adults, to understanding further about mental health, and also about general business skills. The latest session took place in October and one of our amazing consultants is the Marketing Manager at Ergobaby UK, Amanda Loveday. She came to inspire us and give us some skills towards more effective marketing.
We definitely needed this session and this blog post is about trying to make use of these new skills. We learnt about calls to action, so if you liked what you read here, about what we offer, if you would like to look into what we do further, I would like to invite you to check our Facebook reviews to see what our consultants think of their experience, and from there you may check our website too.One Day Without Us
One day without us
https://youtu.be/ryOAofeuwvk
Baby-carrying knows no borders. Love knows no borders. Slingababy knows no borders. We have always supported the act of carrying for all, whether doing it a lot, a little or none at all, whether doing it every day or once in a blue moon, whether using expensive carriers or everyday items. Whilst we are passionate activists in our personal lives, we try to keep Slingababy a place for all, whatever ways you look at the world. Our teaching is coloured by our passion for inclusion, compassion and understanding. We've always encouraged the slowly-slowly approach to get reluctant people interested, even if only interested in asking questions. Once hearts are mellowed, a deeper understanding can take place but the need for connection has to come first.
Sadly, as a European living in the UK in times of great change, I, Lorette, the founder of Slingababy, feel that I cannot be silent anymore. I cannot be slow in getting the change I need. I cannot be gentle. I cannot be understanding. I cannot look at my life, my work, my family, my dreams, my hopes, my employees, my pension schemes, and just be a bystander whilst UK politics threaten to take everything away from me. Or not? Or maybe? Or only if the EU does not play the game the UK wants to play.
So what shall I do? What shall we do? Normally I just would say "look for options. What are your options? What can you do?" What can one do with this? I don't know, because I don't know yet anything for sure. All I know is that I can't keep staying silent. I can't just let things happen without trying to make my voice heard.
I know a lot of my friends and family, and consultants are behind me, and behind many like me, who don't know what's going on. But that's not enough! Your love and your prayers, they won't make the change. And this is why Slingababy is joining in "One day without us". One day when we are hopefully going to show you what it would be if we were not there. A day when you can see how much we have contributed whether financially or not, because contributing to our society is not just over how much taxes we've been paying. We're better than just the pounds, we're better than just money.
So, "One day without us". I hope you notice. I hope you care enough to tell your MP. I hope you care enough to sign our petitions. I hope you care enough to stand up and not just shower us with your love and your prayers. But you're really making what we need to ensure that our lives aren't just shattered from one political decision, from one advisory referendum that had turned wrong. Thank you!
What's happening with Europeans in the UK:
James and Patrizia's story:
Petition
Reform the system of obtaining Permanent Residence Certification/Card (PR)
Petition
Debate the possibility that the "Will of the People" has changed since Brexit
Twitter 1 Day Without Us
Basics of Carrying
Understand the basics of carrying
Resources
Valuable carrying resources