Article by Andrea Rodríguez Valdés, Ripess Europe
From RIPESS Europe we start a new Erasmus + KA2 project called “HATI-SOS” in which we have already started working.
Based on the experiences of previous work, on the internal debates of the organizations and on the information we collected from our trainers, activists, community leaders and other participants in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, we carried out an in-depth analysis of the needs of all the possible groups on which we wanted to influence. Thanks to this analysis, we discovered that in all of them, there was a strong need to acquire better skills in “Soft Skills” – interpersonal skills – that is, methods and techniques related to the non-violent communication, the participatory decision-making, the facilitation and moderation of debates, as well as the organization of large-scale public events, with a specific emphasis on democratic and inclusive methodologies.
The main idea of this project is, therefore, to develop a training activity on these topics for different participants who want to learn about it, with the ultimate goal of expanding and reinforcing their experience, sharing knowledge and good practices, creating a network and laying the foundations to develop the training modules. In addition to this, the group has identified a lack of accessible materials on the organization of large-scale SSE events using participatory approaches, as well as the lack of resources or materials to use in these types of events. Finally, this group also expressed the need to start developing a community of trainers, facilitators and like-minded organizers in their field.
Thus, the main objective of the HATI-SOS project is to support the development of SSE through the implementation of alternative educational approaches, expanding and promoting the offer of educational curricula that include Soft Skills and strengthen cooperation and networking of trainers and activists.
To achieve this main objective, the following secondary objectives have been agreed:
- support the development of SSE by equipping trainers, facilitators, organisers and activists in the field of SSE in Soft Skills;
- strengthen cooperation and knowledge on SSE by supporting the development of an alternative community of trainers, facilitators, organisers and activists in the field of SSE;
- enable the bottom-up participation of trainers, facilitators, organisers and activists in activities supporting the sustainable transformation of the economy by developing their communication, organisational and campaigning skills;
- develop innovative and specialised educational tools for trainers, facilitators, organisers and activists to be used in SSE education.
RIPESS Europe is part of this project together with other members organizations of the network such as Ekumenicka Akademie (Czech Republic), Philanthropy (Hungary), Ekorozwoju (Poland) and Utopia (Slovakia, which is the organization that coordinates the project), and for the next two years, it will be working on it.
Follow the news of this project in the next RIPESS Europe Newsletters.
