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LATEST RELEASES

Value Pack

Innovative Resources is shivering with excitement to announce a late addition to our range of value packs. In response to customer requests, a Latest Releases Value Pack is now available, featuring our six most recent publications:

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!• A Vision for Supervision • The Nature of Strengths• Talking ecoLogical • Life Tweaking• Gender Fairness • Positive Parenting Cards

There’ve been lots of surprises at Innovative Resources over the years, and one of the biggest was the success of The Pocket Stones, our little canvas pouch of 12 ceramic, stony faces, originally conceived to complement the Stones …have feelings too! cards.

Now we’re after your ideas for the next small, tactile gem just waiting to be added to your toolkit. Could you use an expressive Koala? A pliable Funky Fish? A Bear on a ball, or does a 3D-modelled Cars ‘R’ Us get you revved up?Send us your wildest ideas for a tactile therapy or learning tool to info@innovativeresources.org. Or take our short survey here.

Gooey, squishy, noisy, firm or flexible? Funny or contemplative? What kind of tactile resource could you use in your work?

Brainstorming tactile treasure—take the survey!

RRP: AU$328.50Value Pack price: AU$279.25 (Saving of $49.25)

Only available until 30th June 2015!

To order and view more Value Packs click here

In theSpotlight

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Choosing Favourites

My favourite card is the bee in Picture This. Bees are amazing creatures and we would have no food if it wasn’t for the important role that they play. It is my favourite because I like to be kept busy, like a ‘busy bee’. I also like the colours in the card.Georgena Stuckenschmidt, Managing Director

My favourite card set? Hmm, that’s tough. But I love Ups and Downs for its pathos and nautical theatricality. The images capture those complex emotions so well—vulnerability, exhilaration and bewilderment. Plus, the wave about to crash over our pink sailor is a metaphor for us all!Caitlyn Lehmann, SOON Editor

I’m not sure about an individual card, but a set that always struck a chord with me is Shadows and Deeper Shadows. I am drawn to the rawness and the darkness of the set, and the realism of the pictures. Throughout certain times in my life I have lived those images, and every time I see the set it takes me back in some way to certain times in my life. I find them very reflective.Chris Cain, Warehouse Manager

My favourite card set at the moment is Walking the Boundaries. This new set, still in production, generates great conversations about recognising workers’ strengths when coping with everyday ethical dilemmas. But I would not want to be without Deep Speak when meeting strangers. It contains everything I need in order to learn what makes people laugh, cry, think, and ponder in a safe and accessible way, while at the same time finding the aspects of people’s lives that we share or that make us unique individuals. Reckon there should be a set on every cruise ship!Andrew Shirres, Practice Development Coach

More than fifty sets of cards, dozens of different metaphors, and a dazzling array of designs and colourful illustrations. Whew, imagine trying to pick a favourite card or card set?! Ah, but that’s precisely the challenge pitched to the team at Innovative Resources this month. Hmm, which set would you nominate?

I really like The Wrong Stone. I think the book teaches people that it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from and what you look like, there is always a fit in this world for everyone. It shows us everyone can be special in their own way and that we are all different.Cristina Gay, Finance Manager

Being asked to choose a favourite card set for me is like asking a parent to choose their favourite child! One way or another they all feel like my babies. However perhaps the one I am most proud of is Talking Up Our Strengths. Knowing that in a small way we have contributed to processes of Reconciliation with our Indigenous peoples stands out as a legacy I’m most happy to have helped leave.Russell Deal, Founder and Creative Director

Workshops andTraining Tools for Working with FamiliesExplore the uses of our new Positive Parenting Cards along with other card sets developed and published by Innovative Resources such as Baby Strengths and Two Worlds.In this workshop designed specifically for family workers, Andrew Shirres will unlock the potential for cards to open up conversations in ways that enable families to ‘spiral up’.Bringing in the key principles of strengths-based practice, this workshop will serve not only as a refresher for those working from a strengths perspective, but will also offer new ideas, reflections and activities to take away from the day.Note: free shuttle available from the Bendigo and Kangaroo Flat train station, and lunch provided.

DATE: Thursday 23 July, 9:30am-5pmVENUE: Innovative Resources, 62 Collins St., Kangaroo Flat (Bendigo)COST: $297.00 (includes a set of Positive Parenting Cards)

Adventures in GirltopiaIn our work with girls we can often draw on their natural desire to communicate and connect to facilitate supported conversations. When conversations are focused to notice strengths and to take a celebratory, optimistic view of growing up, we can support girls’ resilience and pluckiness as they step toward adulthood.In this workshop we will look at oodles of ways to use the Girltopia cards to trigger stories, questions, reflections, curiosity, awareness and learning, which can help to bring to light—and transform—many of the problems facing girls today.This workshop, led by Jane Bennett, will be of particular interest to youth workers, teachers, counsellors, welfare workers, health professionals and mothers. It’s also for anyone wishing to explore the important foundations of a woman’s journey to maturity.

DATE: Wednesday 22 July, 9:30am–4.00pmVENUE: Academic Centre, University College, 40 College Crescent, Parkville, Melbourne, Vic.COST: $260.70 (includes a set of the Girltopia cards)

Facilitation Daze: Back by popular demand!• Are you new to training and facilitation? • Have you been training and facilitating for a while and want to be reinvigorated? • Do you want to explore participant-centred, interactive group work activities?Booked out when it first ran in May, Facilitation Daze is on again in August! This workshop is all about sharing the skills and experiences of group facilitation and engagement. It is a day of trying out ideas that have grown out of St Luke’s Strength Approach, as well as those inspired by Paul Z Jackson. Designed for facilitators, group workers and culture builders, Facilitation Daze will be jointly hosted by Russell Deal and Andrew Shirres.

DATE: Tuesday 11 August (9:30am-5pm)VENUE: Innovative Resources, 62 Collins St., Kangaroo Flat (Bendigo)COST: $297.00

Head to the Innovative Resources website to find out more about these events and to register.

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We really value our relationships with the teachers, trainers and dedicated human service professionals who use our products, and we’d like to reward our loyal customers with the opportunity to join a new membership scheme.Here is what you’ll receive for your free membership:• 10% discount on all purchases• Exclusive specials throughout the year• Discounts on training and workshop registrations• Invitations to exclusive member engagement events• Additional rewards for signing up new members• Our monthly online newsletter• The opportunity to test out new resources and provide feedback

To join, simply fill out the membership form on our website. By joining you’ll agree to:• receive discounts and special offers• receive invitations to attend special events• receive regular updates about our products (but we won’t spam you!)• participate in product development surveys

Interested? Visit our website and go to the ‘Members’ page.

Become a Member of