Hi, my name is Laura Molnar, I’m from Romania, and I’m a trainer of the Learning to Live Together Programme. In this post, I would like to share with you a little bit about my journey becoming a full-time LTLT trainer.
It all started back in 2009 when, while working as a psychologist for disadvantaged children, I was trained as a facilitator in Geneva, Switzerland. After implementing the program for a while, I started to see excellent results in the children. That is when I realized that I had to bring this program to a larger audience. So when the opportunity came, I took it.
I started working with a young NGO called Sol Mentis where I got the chance to implement the LTLT in a systematic way in formal education. At the beginning, I held many conversations about my intentions with people with more experience in education. Their feedback was often off-putting and discouraging. They would argue that teachers wouldn’t have the resources, time, energy or motivation to implement a program of this nature.
This is when I realized that accrediting the LTLT course with the Ministry of Education was key to the success of my project. With the accreditation on the table, teachers who attend the course would gain credits that could help them advance their profession.
I started the accreditation process by doing some research. I developed a questionnaire for teachers and applied it in different parts of the country. The results showed that ethics education was one of the main learning needs among teachers. With this information on hand, I elaborated the first curriculum of the training course, in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Education and I engaged skilled LTLT facilitators as human resources to carry out the training. I also partnered with different educational institutions in order to have adequate locations to carry out the courses.
It took a couple of months to prepare the accreditation file and a few more to get an answer from the Ministry. Finally, the letter came. We got the accreditation and we were ready to start the courses.
Having in the trainers’ team a practitioner with a lot of experience with teachers was an added value and attracted participants to our courses. The partnership with CN UNESCO for Romania was very useful too, helping us to promote the course through the UNESCO Associated Schools network, and most importantly, translating the LTLT manual to our local language.
We started small, with a handful of teachers implementing the program in two private schools. At the beginning, many teachers were reticent about the efficiency of the methodology and believed that it would take too much time and energy to carry it out. And not only that, they had to re-arrange their classes to make the sessions fit in a curriculum that was already established.
To overcome these obstacles and to offer more support to the teachers, we elaborated some sets of LTLT sessions for different ages. Additionally, we offered to develop a mentoring program for them, facilitating sessions once a month in every school for the teachers to better understand the Ethics Education Approach.
We also needed to secure the institutional support, so we would rally the schools’ Directors on the advantages that this program can bring to the school, like better-prepared teachers to address problems, a decrease in discriminative and aggressive behaviors, a consolidated group cohesion and getting students more motivated to participate in different educational or social projects and initiatives.
Teachers’ busy schedules made it hard to build a community of practice. We tried to compensate through a periodic newsletter where they could see their colleagues’ experiences and achievements and get some feedback from the students. Meeting face to face and sharing ones’ experience is also very important, so we decided to organize, a yearly trip with our community of practice, offering a proper context to discuss their results and their challenges, and reflect together on ways forward.
We also worked very closely with Arigatou International Geneva in the monitoring and evaluation process. A monitoring and evaluation report was elaborated by Arigatou International Geneva, including relevant data and conclusions.
By the second year of implementation (2015-2016) we had gained more than 50 teachers from our partner schools. After noticing the results their colleagues achieved, they were motivated to implement the methodology in a systematic way. More than 2,000 students took part in implementations of programs based on the LTLT, improving their capacity to make ethical decisions and developing better social and communicational skills.
We expanded the accreditation to new regions in the Center, South, and East of the country, focusing on disadvantaged communities and areas affected by cultural, religious or ethnic divides. By the beginning of 2017, more than 120 teachers, from more than 15 towns and villages, expressed their interest to implement in a systematic way.
Each year we organize different projects, competitions and events (interfaith and intercultural learning, discrimination or violence prevention projects, IDEP and DPAC celebrations), bringing together schools and others institutions, offering students the opportunity to become more informed and to further develop their team-work and public speaking abilities.
At the end of the school year, teachers reported that students’ showed an increased sense of empathy and respect for the other; They developed better communication skills, improved their ability to resolve conflicts and showed better autonomy to overcome conflictual situations. Teachers also noticed a decrease in aggressive behaviors in the classroom. Children improved their creativity and critical thinking, showed more self-esteem and trust in their own forces, and became more involved with the needs of others.
The teachers also emphasized the changes in their own approaches and behaviors: more tolerance and patience, better conflict management, no discriminative attitudes, a better connection with their students, a higher sense of responsibility for their own behavior, more openness for informal education, and an increased motivation and self-introspection.
In the past four years, I have trained 1,300 facilitators, who have reached more than 3,000 children in Romania. For me, this achievement is more than number, it translates into lives changed, a more peaceful environment for children, and a sign of hope for the new generation.
The post How I Became a Full-Time Learning to Live Together Trainer appeared first on Ethics Education for Children.
Playing in itself is valuable for all participating. But utilizing the situations and settings of playing for learning and social processes adds a valuable dimension– in fact, it adds both value and values.
This is particularly true for refugee children who are the innocent victims of violence, conflict, war, and displacement, and find themselves in reception, accommodation, refugee -or whatever name we give them- centers all over the world. Playing, for these children, is a valuable vehicle through which they find processes that lead them back to the normality of childhood.
Playing contributes to physical health, mental well-being, and social integration by creating “another space” within the refugee center; a safe environment in which a child can develop physically, emotionally and mentally. Playing releases tension, liberates, opens up creativity, builds relationships, creates conditions for relationships with others, and thus with oneself. But what is of particular importance to the refugee child is the return to a normal life, the power of action in the here and now, the sense of belonging to this community that plays, and therefore talk, creating a network of security and stability for the child.
What kind of play are we talking about though? How can we add value and values to children’s play?
“Everything that is approached in an inclusive, holistic and playful manner” (2014, Moving Together Promoting Psychosocial Well-being Through Sport and Physical Activity).
In refugee centers, where formal education is limited or unavailable, playing can act as a vehicle for learning. When it incorporates ethics and values it becomes a valuable tool to include and engage not only different ethnic groups but also children with disabilities or refugee girls, who may be deprived of other avenues for growth due to cultural beliefs or time-consuming chores. Games that are fair, engaging and entertaining contribute to the ethical development of the children. Let me remind you that according to Unesco’s “Fair play is defined as much more than playing with the rules. It incorporates the concepts of friendship, respect for others and always playing within the right spirit. Fair play is defined as a way of thinking, not just a way of behaving”.
Dr. Angeliki (Gelly) Aroni, Physical Education Teacher and Trainer of the Learning to Live Together Programme
The post The Value of Play and the Values Through Play, for Refugee Children appeared first on Ethics Education for Children.
In this video, Vera will walk you through each of the steps of the Learning Process. Enjoy!
The post The Learning Process appeared first on Ethics Education for Children.
When working for grassroots organizations, but also for larger governmental organizations and for the non-profit sector in general, we are often confronted with the task to mobilize resources to implement and scale up our programs.
A few years ago, when I started to work in the non-profit sector, mobilizing resources was somehow easier. Was there less competition? Were donors more generous? Was I more skilled in pulling resources to my organizations? I cannot say and maybe it is a combination of all these factors.
When I started to work in the field of resource mobilization and partnership engagement, larger UN Agencies did not compete for funds together with other non-profits. They had secured their own funds by their member States. For whatever reason, today the landscape has changed.
This has also brought about positive developments, like for example an increased emphasis on cooperation that has reduced the duplication of efforts and an improved capacity to share information and document good practices.
However, what does this change in landscape mean for us practitioners working in grassroots organizations and competing in the resource mobilization race?
Well, it means first of all that we need to be more strategic, systematic and intentional about our resource mobilization activities. While there is room for creativity and for trying out innovative solutions, we should not really be improvising too much. In order to carry out successful resource mobilization and partnership engagement activities, we should strengthen the organizational capacity of our NGOs in order to attract partners and potential donors. This means improved visibility and a sound communication strategy to reach out to potential partners and donors.
We also need to get comfortable with the Partnership Engagement Cycle, with conducting an analysis of our donor’s landscape to identify potential opportunities for partnership and financial support, and with writing a proposal for project funding.
This is why I’ve decided to share with you all I know about resource mobilization & partnership engagement and how to get the funds you and your organization need to achieve your goals.
In this post, we will explore the Partnership Engagement Cycle and a few practical tips for networking. In the next post, we will look more in detail into tips for writing projects proposals for funding.
The Partnership Engagement Cycle is a strategy for connecting with potential partners and getting them on board with your project or organization. It starts from the moment you start researching the partners’ landscape, moving into concrete engagement with them, and followed by the exploration of joint opportunities. These initial steps are then channeled into concrete collaborations, like implementing a project together. The cycle ends with reporting, which includes monitoring and evaluating the outcomes.
Today’s blog post aims to explore specifically Mapping & Engaging providing some tips and a checklist that could guide you in these crucial initial phases of the cycle.
The first step in the Partnership Cycle is Mapping. Doing research and looking out for potential partners is crucial for partnership engagement, but it will become a hard quest if you fail to document relevant information of each of the potential partners you have identified. In order to be more efficient it is good to look for potential partners and donors, and most importantly, to record the significant data that will help you systematize your efforts to better compare, prioritize, and take action for engagement. A systematic recording of information is crucial for a successful donor mapping and for building the capacity of your organization in this field.
The table below can guide your donor mapping. It has a few straight questions to understand donors, their motivations, their practices, and policies. Make sure you record this information when you do your donor landscape.
While mapping your potential donors and partners keep always in mind the vision, mandate and strategic direction of your organization, this will help you to find the right partners and donors focusing on common goals, synergies and mutual interest and building on them for a successful engagement.
Once you have a shortlist of potential partners and you feel ready to move forward, you can go to the second step of the cycle: Engaging
I have gathered the key tips for effective networking in the following list:
1- If possible, networking works best in neutral territories (conferences, symposiums, workshops) where you have the opportunity to present your work and prospective projects to several potential partners or donors, and where you can listen as well as observe their interests and get prepared to introduce your ideas.
2- Familiarize yourself with the environment and context of the prospective donor or partner. Learn as much as you can from them, so you are prepared to find synergies and spaces for collaboration.
3- Introduce your organization and your mandate, but make it SHORT AND SHARP! This is your opportunity to start a relationship, make a connection with the potential partner, be empathetic to their own cause and link it to yours, so they can also relate to it.
4- Do not ask for money up front, but instead focus on the relationship and the potential synergies between you and your prospective partner or donor. For example, share contacts and information unconditionally first: show a genuine will to collaborate, no strings attached.
5- Talk about a concrete proposal. It is better to be specific and avoid ambiguity when engaging with new partners.
6- Involve them from the start to build co-ownership of the project.
7- Invite them to one of your events or to visit one of your projects. This is a good opportunity to show tangible evidence of your work.
8- Submit your initial project proposal or application, depending on the case, and wait for the result. When possible try to consult the donor before submitting your final proposal. Even if the proposal is not accepted, make sure to follow-up and ask for feedback (when possible) about your application so that you can gain valuable lessons for your next submission.
Did you find these tips useful? Are you already using these techniques in your engagement with partners? Would you like to suggest more useful strategies to capture the interest of potential partners and prospective donors?
Please share your thoughts and experiences with us!
The post Mobilizing Resources to Implement or Scale-up Your Programs (Part 1) appeared first on Ethics Education for Children.
