What we do · Social capacity building
Making and keeping friends.
Making and keeping friends is one of our three focus areas, and it runs through every stage of life.
What we believe
We believe somebody you only see at a scheduled activity is a co-participant, not a friend.
Most providers believe that putting people with a shared interest in a room together produces friendship, and that the shared interest does the work.
But in reality, somebody you only ever see at a scheduled activity isn't a friend. They're a co-participant. A friend is somebody with a mutual regard and a mutual commitment who you see voluntarily, outside the structure, and a shared interest doesn't produce that on its own. What it produces is attendance. The things friendship actually runs on are regulation, social confidence and enough language to hold your end of a conversation, and none of those arrive by proximity.
That's why we teach the skills directly, at every stage, and train the people who are there when friendship happens to coach them during the week. Our online clubs build the things that come before friendship. Our structured programs teach the skills themselves, from shared play before school to dating after it. And we measure what changed in the person, not how many sessions they attended.
What changes
From being near other people, to being friends with them.
At every stage
The skills change as the rules change.
What friendship runs on is different at every stage of life, so what we teach is different too.
Play is taught, not caught. Parents are trained to coach shared play as it happens.
Before school →Primary schoolHow to join a game already running, lose one without losing the friend, and host a get-together that ends well.
Primary school →Secondary schoolConversations, humour, messaging, handling teasing and rumours, and what socially successful teenagers actually do.
Secondary school →School leaversFinding people who share your interests once school stops supplying them, and dating, if you want it.
School leavers →AdultsA regular adult social evening, and friendship as the goal rather than attendance.
Adults →Straight answers
What we will tell you honestly.
Friendship is a choice.
If somebody doesn't want more friends, that is an answer, and we take it at face value. We don't talk anyone into it. There is usually still something useful to do, like planning the next big change or working out what kind of work might suit.
Our clubs are the start, not the answer.
Online gaming clubs build comfort in a group, teamwork and the regulation to stay in the room. For a lot of people that is what makes a structured program possible later. We say plainly that it comes first, rather than presenting it as friendship.
Social skills is not the same as masking.
We teach what actually works among people that age, and leave the person to choose whether to use it. What we add is options they were never shown. We never describe what we do as helping somebody fit in.
Take the first step
Let's talk about what's happening.
Request a call back and one of our team will ring you at a time that suits. It takes about fifteen minutes, it's free, and you don't need anything worked out before we speak.