SALT is Safeguarding

[wiwin winarni]

What makes me think that SALT is safeguarding is because the SALT principle emphasizes focusing on strengths. This means that when we dialogue we learn to convey what we feel we are able to do and as the interlocutor we appreciate the positive things or strengths even from an unpleasant event. This prevents people from feeling blamed, cornered, attacked or even judged.

When someone shares a bad experience, we try to connect with people who have experienced similar experiences in other places or communities, this is important to make people with bad experiences not feel alone. At the same time, we try to learn from this experience how people in other places find solutions to the problems they face. meaning that in a SALT conversation, we not only support and appreciate positive things but get solutions from reflections on learning from all types of experiences

in a facilitation context, safeguarding occurs when a group of facilitators gather to plan, for example, SALT events or training. We usually openly offer who will present what session without giving the impression of an assignment. All of us have equal standing. The term flying hours in facilitating is not a measure that facilitators with high flying hours are the ones who are most capable of facilitating. Because basically we believe in the strength and abilities of each of us, anyone, as long as he wants, will be able to carry out a facilitation session. For example, our teenage friend Florence from Kenya, she is clear proof of the principle that SALT makes her feel safe and comfortable interacting, communicating and conveying her genuine ideas among SALT facilitators who may have been doing SALT facilitation for as many years as Florence herself.

the last one is AER practice. This is clear evidence that SALT as an approach or facilitation guarantees the safety and comfort of both participants and facilitators. Participants can specifically convey things they don't like about their involvement in a facilitation session through AER, especially what areas we need to improve. He can give notes to the facilitator what should be done to make him feel comfortable when he is with us. At the same time, the participants' feedback to the facilitator will be very specific, so that he can improve the quality of his facilitation with that input. In this section, we are not criticizing someone's quality, but are looking at improvements and improvements according to the facilitation mechanism or system which is certainly not intended to blame a facilitator.

Finally, in line with the principles of ethical leadership in public participation, a facilitator is someone with leadership qualifications whose way of facilitating, the way he thinks, speaks and behaves becomes a model to be followed. We do safeguarding not by saying what we have to do, but by applying a way of thinking and working with SALT principles which will be clearly seen and observed for our participants to follow. We protect not only the people we work with, but we protect ourselves through SALT.