SEPT 24-28, 2018_Bethlehem, Palestine.

WHY

Designed according to the ‘academy’ approach model, this training workshop combines multiple topics into a customised format based on needs.  It aims to enhance a process where local cultural operators, trainers, and community activists take responsibility for the promotion of a more robust and resilient culture sector that promotes social cohesion and inclusiveness and meets local needs in a more effective manner. It will underline the correlation between learning and projects and learning and resilience and their link to advocacy.

This advanced training will provide participants with tools and skills that will help them become more creative managers and trainers at every phase of their work; it will also help them become real advocates for culture, contributing their voice to decision-making processes and promoting culture within their community as a vehicle for its advancement and wellbeing.

This regional workshop responds to an expressed need from Med Culture beneficiaries and builds on previous work accomplished through the programme.

WHAT

The workshop will explore:

• Advanced methodologies in project management that focus on the management of one’s relations with oneself and with others and that give value to processes.
• Project management that integrates resilience and learning as a strong component;
• Advanced learning and facilitation techniques;
• Advocacy and mobilizing the public around issues relative to culture and community development, acquiring innovative methodologies and instruments that will enhance their work and the value of their organisations; 
• Acquisition of skills in transmitting values and attitudes towards culture and its significance in building community cohesion and resilience in remote neglected areas;
• Pitching creative and innovative projects that transform an idea into something greater than the sum of the parts.

HOW

The workshop will guarantee a hands-on and interactive programme that addresses (advanced) project management and ToT through seven cross-cutting themes:

1. Self-awareness: looking at yourself, your skills and abilities and the values you stand for as a practitioner is a prerequisite for interacting with others. Revisiting your own competencies should give you new perspectives on your dealings with others.
2. Communication: both internal and external and building on the model of new communication[i]: 1) communication is unavoidable; 2) everything is about communication; 3) what we communicate is what the other understands – active listening and taking responsibility; and 4) flexibility, with understanding that is a source of power.
3. Group dynamics: Harnessing the power of a group for more effective learning and cultural project work.
4. Facilitation involves building trust and handing power to the group. Explore spaces for facilitation, within a team and for debates or with communities.
5. Leadership and what collaborative leadership looks like.
6. Consensus decision-making: a process focused on how to decide on a course of action articulated between partners/stakeholders, etc.  Your ideas will not always prevail, but through your contribution, they become, in fact, an important part of the ultimate choices or decision that is made. Consensus involves sharing key information ahead of time so that a better long-term decision can be made.
7. Partnerships: a successful partnership that goes beyond mere ‘window dressing’: addressing obstacles and barriers to real partnerships.

The last day of the workshop includes an Open Space where participants can develop project ideas through critical analytical questions and where they are placed in a position of critical friends for each other’s projects.

The methodology of the workshop will focus on shifting the participants’ thinking about management and learning as a fruitful and effective experience; and sharing best practice, the better to support new approaches to project management and collaborative work.  It’s a process orientated training that delivers themes in the context of adult learning where you have choices about what theme is going to help your work.  It also includes learning from each other, so sharing your own knowledge and expertise and reflecting in and on experiences will be vital.