Lab Report Draft 1

First rough draft of some of what was said, please comment, correct and amend! Some notes still to be inserted plus editing, clarifying and excuse shorthand which I have not yet translated into English e.g. CD=Community Development. Sometimes there is no note of the name and sometimes there is you could help me here!

Training and Learning for Community Development Life Long Learning Programme – Key Activity 4 (See Appendix A for a Summary of the project and Appendix B for list of partners) Report of Laboratory 15th October to 18th October 2008 Meeting place: Garaget, Lönngatan 30, Malmö Notes: This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This report reflects the views only of the TLCD Consortium, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. References: 135744-NL-KA4MP Training and Learning for Community Development Life Long Learning Programme – Key Activity 4 Call for Proposals 2007 EAC/61/2006 15th October 2008 Partners arrive and meet informally. 16th October 2008 Chair Hans Andersson: 10.00 Presentation of participants in pairs and forum: Hans Andersson 10.30 Welcome from the city of Malmö and presentation of Garaget: Svenjohan Davidsson 11.00 Presentation of the TLCD-project and aims of Laboratory: Margo, Sven and Jenny  

To distil main lessons and results from all relay visits To identify creative methods for networking and dissemination of results

11.15 Time Machine Participants entered the time machine were they were invited to go back in time and place to revisit each of the relays where the host presented outcomes and questions Feedback from Relay Time Machine 

Brussels Relay 

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At the session we looked at the report and then explored what ideas we can explore with a view to implementation. One example of this is in the Garaget here – how do you keep the dialogue. Sustainability as key word. What do we mean by needs assessment in TLCD. Are there standards that need to be met for professionals? After all the relays are complete how do we combine what we learn?

Budapest’ Ilona will make a note but would emphasise 2 things 1) Wider view –important to involve as many actors of society as we can because people are closed in their own limitations and no analysis of the

neighbourhood, the country or Europe. We need to train them as catalysts for a Training and Learning process 2) Against the fashion of Good Practice because sometimes good practice can happen after failure or conflict. We don’t want a sugar-coated Europe and we don’t want a Europe of window-dressing. 3) CD cannot be service delivery. UK 

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Every group was different. Sue felt under pressure to do a lot of the talking and describe what they did. Some of the issues for Community Workers and then the process and what that means for Training and Learning for CD. There are challenges for Community Workers that are more fundamental than the challenges for TLCD. How do Community Workers feedback to the community what they have been doing? What are we measuring and how doe we feedback that measurement? That is also important for TLCD.

Slovakia, Banksa Bystrica 

The main thing we focussed on were the tensions between CO and CD. When we were in BB we tried to define.

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CO came up as a strategy and a tool and can be used in a cycle

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Not comparable

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Social Planning and Social Policy

Berlin 

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Started with main conclusions from Relay looking at collective public actions. How to create learning experiences for professionals and for activists? Analysis of starting situation is an important foundation of any action including TLCD How to find ways to pool different kinds of knowledge and bring them together in a way that is accessible to different groups.

We need different and adaptable means of interaction. Importance of relation building including public relations. General Reflections:  It was a big challenge to shape the relay visit 5 more times when we thought that we had already done it!  It also helped to shape some new conclusions.  

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It reminded me that the relay was an experiment and it was the first time I experienced such a means of exchange. (Emil) Svenjohan emphasised how Garaget is open to all and is itself a laboratory for the district but why not also a symbol of how local is also European. While the TLCD Laboratory was working, there were local people who sometimes listened in and some had their own meetings in parallel, for example one of the older men locally has a men’s club, which was meeting in while we were discussing the relay. They focus on support for immigrant men. They make trips together and have discussions. They have set up some international exchanges using their own networks. Hans presented reflected on Training and Learning in the groups. With hindsight, there was not enough clarity in the instruction but groups managed to make some good points.

14.00 Session on use of Community Development and Community Organization 14.00 

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Community development presented by Sue Webb/Hall

When I first saw this in the programme I thought what a broad topic. Hans suggested the American model. I selected the following for us to talk about here: Where does Training and Learning fit in and where does it relate to community practice. In CDF service delivery and corporate responsibility would be included in the CD framework. I decided to invite other participants to tell us something about their perspective on CD around Europe.

Gianni  CD is inherent in Community which is developing. Issues and problems they want to work on and to solve. In doing this they will work together and develop peace and harmony.  Facilitate the process of CD – we are not the main actors, they must continue it themselves and make them develop in a peaceful and sustainable way. 

Accessibility (management of development )

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Participation everybody to take part in

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Managing conflict is inherent Ways to facilitate this process and we do this through mediation. What is important is to make people actors not only to work with their problems but also with their potential.

Magda 

Central to our approach is empowerment. Development is inherent is good idea but it is not always possible but you have to empower people

Empowerment Personal level you learn how to do things but also structural changes in the system so that development happens in the structures Oonagh 

I work with Training and Learning and reinforce what Magda said and would add: 

Task Social change linked to social justice

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Process bringing personal into connection with wider group

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Moving outside of that community to achieve long term change

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Going beyond participation and beyond capacity building to consciousness.

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In Ireland we are in bed with the state – in and against and aware of the tension. Definition of Govt is that CD is about promoting positive social change in society in favour of those most disadvantaged Exact quote from Oonagh to be inserted.

Fenny: In Holland there is a book (get title from Fenny) on Samenlevingsopbouw that defines the role of CD to stimulate and help people to live together in a productive way. We make a distinction between task and process that is multi- levelled. Process Categories on any scale neighbourhood, city or province that is territory. Not only taking place in neighbourhoods but at different levels Involve different actors people who are part of community Task CD person task is to make sure that these different professions work together so that different professionals work together with community. Sue’s Summary Sue combined these different presentations: and pointed out that there are Common threads we all agree on: e.g. participation, empowerment, enabling and also raised some questions: How do we relate this to training we have for community workers? What critical consciousness do all the actors have to have? What is the dialogue they need to raise that critical consciousness? One of the ways we do that is reflective practice. Community Organising: Paul Cromwell 

Paul challenged the view of Community Organising, which said it used conflict to get results. He said that he found the work on the TLCD project impressive and was working at how to get up to speed with project.

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He shared what CO means to those involved in it: Purpose is to bring lots of people together to powerfully solve neighbourhood issues (or specific groups He gave examples that demonstrated that the concept of Power is that it equals lots of money and lots of people. We don’t have lots of money but we have the potential to mobilise lots of people. Mayor of a city will respond differently to Director of Volkswagen and individual homeless person but if you bring lots of people together then Mayor will respond differently.

Process of Community Organising 1) Listening systematically to lots of people (want to be sure that themes are really important to people but also because this is how we guarantee participation either through self- interest or have a relationship of trust and respect with someone who has invited them. This is done through house meeting, one to one or visiting and groups Listen to self-interests and identify them and begin to build relationship of trust and respect. 2) Research to find potential solutions to what has been identified: What do we want and when? Specific needs not moaning about gaps Who can give us what we want? Targeting individuals with power Who are our potential allies? 3) Solution can take a self-help track but primarily we work with organisations: Relationship of Community Organising to Training and Learning: How do we train? I started because I wanted to change the world but I stayed because of what happens to people in this process. This can make a powerful transformation in people’s lives. Lots of face-to-face visits: Train volunteers in one evening and then they practice it with each other. Not teaching people anything new but we help people to do it with intentionality. Relationships become the glue. Power analysis: potential allies. Training people to negotiate: A part of all CO Planning Acting Evaluation Unequal power and conflict is a given but sometimes Local Authorities welcome participation and involvement and that is what we seek.

If LA says no then there is the level of preparation for challenge and conflict. Long-term multi issue, multi theme organisations. Discussion Do you need professionals for Community Organising? In Paul’s experience, it works better with paid staff. Cultural differences in what we call Community Organising or CD or Community Work. There are important distinctions and there is also complementarity - the 3 steps in CO – planning, acting evaluating - apply equally to CD. HACD has a movement side to it and another is providing professional Community Development, In HACD there is emphasis on Civil Society Development. CD is a huge moving space, which is not over-regulated in Hungary Carole: questions of terminology. French is close to Gianni’s definition. In France the term is “social development” usually with the addition of ‘local’ to signify community of place. Tasks – Process- objectives and the approaches to power: Participation and reducing inequality Empower is strong but some people use it simply about capacity building which is not very strong. Participation: We often have contradictory tendencies in CO and CD and in ourselves. Conference in December about these tendencies – one is away from participation towards top down because participation does not always work well. It’s more than conversation around the kitchen table to techniques for Training and Learning have to take us further. Community of Place, Belonging, Interest etc. are all part of it. Sue reflected on the mathematics of society and how our world view has changed. From linear to everything finds its own equilibrium. Never the same. Always something that can change it and we have to take into consideration something extraneous can influence the equilibrium. Efficiency and effectiveness and the market orientated thinking can influence the dialogue about what is happening to communities and put pressure on us. What are we losing when we get involved in service delivery? Tensions between CO and CD one important link is to representative and participatory democracy. Sometimes it is important to have CO as starting point but never to have it funded by the state. Danger of Them and Us Discussion of both linked to participatory democracy and representative. Keep that in mind ecological non-sugar dynamic.

Magda wants to share something from perspective of PACT. Create community groups in communities that we don’t know in Romania. What skills should we teach these people? Chuck did training on CO. We have to teach people to express their voice and negotiate with Local Authority. If we use CO which can be aggressive and conflictive but what do we leave there. Our choice was that we could not afford CO because people were not confident. So we chose partnership and perseverance with the LA. When they throw you out the door, you go back in the window. Sometimes in CO, you break the windows Gianni, What we have experienced and experimented is the diversity in the different countries. For me it was quite a shock to see this opposition. Maybe in England where there is a lot of interference from the state in CD. Different conceptual approaches Organising together or developing is a false dichotomy. You have to organise to develop. In some cases it may not be conflictive but complementary and we can do this through TLCD. Kirsten: We need chaos pilots to steer us through this!

17th October 2008 Theme: Citizenship, culture and communication: Chair Hans Andersson 9.00

Participation Margo gave apologies from Cristiana Vlad of ARCD who could not attend but who has done and excellent presentation on the theory and practice of ‘Participation’. Margo will request that this is available to the Consortium on the website. In her view this presentation is much better than the ‘ladder of participation’, which Hans, Margo and Magda decided to throw away as it had outlived its usefulness as an image. An alternative arrangement was tailor made for the group to work on the second aim of the Laboratory, which is “To identify creative methods for networking and dissemination of results”

From Relay to Laboratory to Dissemination: Magda Tancau and Margo Gorman

Session 1: Participation in Dissemination Personal reflection on “How I will participate in dissemination” Feedback in Forum on “What do I want to disseminate? Lies Samenlevingsbouw,BE •

Report on relay visit in Brussels

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History of CD in our own country and consiousness of that history among professionals. Link CD in Flanders to European CD

Kirsten The Ideas Bank NO I want to work on what is the essence of the findings from the 5 relay visits and relate that to the Norwegian context. I will use the report from the Laboratory to help match the findings from the relay visits. Sarah: CESIE, IT I will extract the main threads and make them accessible Sue, CDF UK We need to develop a plan based on all the reports and related to the context. Carole Dane, IRDSU, FR I will update the report on CD in France for the CEBSD website based on the 6 points of reference for the relay visits. I will use this as a basis for future work on a conference in France in December 2008 and a big conference in 2010 where the European dimension will be integrated. Schorse, Kommunales Forum DE I will use the work on TLCD as the basis for an invitation to be involved and to take part in future work on TLCD. Gianni, FDC, ES I will use the work to reflect on the diversity of the processes needed. There is one big question to work on: how to transform the “target” groups to actors. This is a core question for the process of using CD as a vehicle for developing democracy. Ilona, HACD, HU: The template attached to the draft dissemination plan for the project helped HACD identify how much we have used the inspiration and influence of the project in our work. (Ilona gave several examples from the template to highlight how the project has been used to give a European dimension to HACD’s work for example using material for the MEA degree. TLCD has also helped inspire a restructuring of HACD’s training system for local people. Paul Cromwell, CKO The task of bringing the material from relay visits together should be a common task of partners. The embryonic European Community Organising network would be interested in links. The CEECN network is developing a database on best practice and this could be linked to work on TLCD. It could also be used to help shape the curriculum for Social Work, which is being developed by the Academy for Social Work in Slovakia. Emil Metodiev, CEGA, BG I am interested in putting together the findings from the relay visit and also the method of relay, which was unique to me. This method should be disseminated. A

handbook on process with tips on how to overcome problems encountered would also be useful. Oonagh McArdle, CWC, IE I agree that we should disseminate the diversity of approaches but I think we have a lot in common in spite of the different experiences, different context and status of CD in different countries. There has been shared Purpose, Process and Values held in the Laboratory and that is valuable and worth sharing. There is the potential to shape the future of CD rather than have it shaped by others. What can we hold onto and use? I will find ways to involve CWC in CEBSD. I would support the idea of collation of materials. Johannes Bertelesen, KSS, DK I have a lot of my own impressions to share in Denmark but I don’t have one clear message. Should we have someone to work alongside relays to help distil the findings as they happened?

Feedback in Forum on “How do I plan to disseminate?” Some said that how and what were closely related so should be linked and the specific group targeted for dissemination needs to be clear. 1) CWC would like to see the library of Combat Poverty Agency in Ireland established as a resource for Community Development in Europe 2) CDF will do a dissemination plan for UK for internal CDF colleagues and for contacts in other organisations involved directly in CD 3) CDF will disseminate material in CDF policy networks 4) HACD will integrate TLCD into work including the MA Programme 5) Carole will use material in conferences planned for 2009 and 2010 and will put more ideas on paper in preparation for these to help involve French networks in the project. 6) CESIE will identify target groups. 7) CESIE will use the material in their existing networks at local, national and European level and will use material in to develop new projects. 8) CESIE volunteered to take first steps to help develop an online archive of material. 9) Kommunales Forum will disseminate at a regional level in the first instance through people involved in the relay. They will also work with other European projects and people in universities. 10) Ideas Bank will put information about relays in newsletter 11) ID will work with delegation of those on People and Politics project to make links.ID will strengthen links with other projects for joint learning e.g. make links with People in Politics website. ID will make links to final conference of People and Politics project and the booklet they plan to produce. There will be a short article on TLCD in the booklet. 12) Samenlevingsopbouw will target those doing training in CD and their networks of those involved in TLCD e.g. Group of adult educators (through the delivery of training) 13) Carole will explore multiplying through the social press in France. 14) Fenny will put material in the professional journal which she edits in NL and will set up a network for CD workers to help them get in touch with European partners.

15) Fenny will also share material at 2 conferences one national, one international to develop dialogue at different levels. The International Council for Social Welfare will hold a conference on CD next year in the Hague 16) Fenny will put material on website of MOVISIE 17) Fenny will work on bringing back a professional profile for CD workers in NL 18) CEBSD should develop a European professional profile for CD workers. 19) In Malmo, they are developing Garaget as a local resource and as national resource – why not also a European resource for material on CD? 20) CEBSD should do a press release for European press and national journals etc. 21) CESAM will integrate material from TLCD in two new projects where local authorities and NGOs are working together.

Session 2: Dissemination that reaches a specific target group: Under pressure to make their message accessible, the partners distilled the following from the Relay Visits for sharing (thanks to Lies Beunens for notes!) 1. Belgium hosting we need a framework for Training and Learning for Community Development, which starts with, needs assessment and interaction between teaching and learning, between trainer and trainee. 2. Hungary hosting Community Workers, link workers, Mediators should have a high level of knowledge and awareness of CD and its history and should train other professions on how to use Community Development Purpose, Process and Values in their work. 3. When working in Partnerships with others especially Government, Community Development has to remain in touch with and learn from the voice, needs and perspective of volunteers and activists especially those who have not reached Third Level education. 4. Community Development needs to be aware of the parallel method of Community Organising, which seeks to develop a democratic culture. 5. Training and Learning for Community Development has to create learning experiences for volunteers, activists and professionals using all resources available. Working on role-play as partners act as disseminators and the receivers give feedback on the message they hear. When ‘tested’ with a Journalist, a European Commission official, a Community Worker, etc. the following feedback was given: Notes to be inserted here: Developing a European Dimension Kirsten’s presentation; Kirsten presented three photos as metaphors for the European Dimension 1. The first photo was one from the press conference European Dialogue seminar – a meeting between two European organisations/network committed to the issue of Citizens participation cross Europe. It was a beautiful symbol that the press conference took place in the old riverboat named “Europé”. The photo represents the Horizontal connections people to people, where is

Europe – not (only) in Brussels. It is where people live their “everyday lives”. How can we strengthen this people to people exchange through training and learning and by building upon the experiences we got through this project? What are the similarities what are the communalities and how can we bring this issue into training and learning in concrete training programmes in the communities? At the European Dialogue seminar it and also in the relay visits/reports it has been described as two realities for how to work with community development, citizens participation and training and learning. The Western and the post-communist countries. There is a need for best practical examples on methods, projects and so on. The CEE CN started their database, and has a competition. The Ideas Bank database – from the Budapest declaration the need for European Ideas Bank was expressed. So how to bring our best practices in training and learning into further exchange at the European “people to people level”. How to develop and implement the paragraph about Training and learning that this project is based on? 2. The second photo is the Catalonian Castellers, translated into the European Citizens/human towers towards Europe. This represents the vertical. My concern and commitment as and individual in the project. How can we bring our best practices, our analysis our recommendations to EU and to our national parliaments? How can our practice influence the policy? Should we think of this both in the preparation of the final meeting of the People and Politics project in Oslo? And also in the future perspective of the project? For the TLCD project: How can we highlight this question in the further work and in the final conference in Sofia? 3. The third photo represents the Learning spiral – we are a learning partnership. Each partner has worked as we have heard with his or her own local learning process. In the partnership we exchange and learn. What do we learn for being together with partners from other countries in Europe and how can we disseminate this learning experience? Gianni Orsini: presentation Some elements about the European dimension of the TLCD project It is about the follow up of this project We said yesterday that TLCD has to do with Citizenship education. It is important that children and adolescents are on-goingly educated in citizenship, and that that happens everywhere. A European framework can ensure that this happens, through resources delivery and through a structural framework, which ensures that, a proper mechanism exist to make the project sustainable. Indeed, when we think of CD and of TLCD, we think very often locally (i.e. the French definition of CD, i.e. developpement social local). It is likely that changes happens in terms of values when there is a TLCD action at the local level, but it is also likely that it doesn’t last too long if we don’t ensure that a policy or a mechanism or a structure to maintain the change follows.

On the other hand, globalisation doesn’t concern only the global level anymore; globalisation concerns the local level as well. We can already speak of microglobalisation. We cannot any more speak of local without associating global and viceversa. This is the new paradigm for transformation action. The European framework is the more accessible global level for us; there is where we have our say, just inbetween the very local and the very global. From this prospect why should we consolidate our work at the European level? In addition to this necessity of a European framework, just demonstrated above, we want to implement our own model, i.e. we want to be able to say NO to the social control on the one hand and to the Fortress Europe on the other. Sometimes we are playing the game of the governments and we ensure the social cohesion they are not able to build. In a way we help them to get the social control. On the contrary, we should be pro-active and impose our views instead of getting their money and do what they want us to do. The same with the fortress Europe, we should struggle against the construction of a closed and secure Europe. Immigration shouldn’t be presented as a problem, but as a challenge. We must be able to influence this up to bottom imposition. How to achieve the last two objectives: by considering and convincing that TLCD is not only for Communities, but also for the governments, official administration and business sector (the triangle of participation), so that CD is the right vehicle for inclusion, participation and democracy. Some questions for consideration Questions for group-work: THE EUROPEAN DIMENSION 1. Mapping: Which other European projects - which are focusing on or linked with the European dimension in training and learning for community development, citizens participation are you participating in? And how could we build bridges to or create synergies with these projects? 2. Which new projects can we create to go more in depth into the issues that we have highlighted in the relays and the laboratory? The aim of the working group is to work out proposals and recommendations about the sustainability of our project and in particular with respect to the content of the Sofia conference.

Work on recommendations for action based on questions Group 1 Links between CEECN and TLCD should be strengthened People and Politics project should be a resource for learning and deepening links

L’association European De Regie de Quartier should be explored for links Every partner should provide information about his or her national networks Major area or networks to be explored within European networking Open Method of Co-ordination CD and Social Welfare URB-ACT European Anti-poverty network European Social Platform European dimension should be brought to a local level with pilot projects in a number of countries and should have real exchange in one to one situations. Group 2: Gianni said the starting point was different. Looked at background in Budapest Declaration and tried to see how to reformulate and change it in second paragraph on CD training. We should facilitate a common framework. Why do we need such a framework? First we need a process at community level and then we can use EU process but When there are bananas, there are monkeys. Money is not everything and sometimes it can be used Link Common European framework and bottom up issues. Links to Local government is key as these institutions are key to change. Lots of money in Germany but no profession as such. Do we want a profession? If we want to have CD we have to educate all citizens throughout a lifetime. Through such a framework we can have a lot of programmes with people who will make recommendations and this will help to make a step forward in CD. If we look at the background. We are missing concrete recommendations from grassroots level. We need to facilitate big programmes to facilitate lots of projects, which can work together to maintain and sustain CD. Our project should have a recommendation to EACEA to release calls, which focus on CD training and learning and citizenship education. 2009 priority is Social Inclusion and this can be tied in with that. Group 3 1) Use opportunities for individual mobility under the Leonardo and Grundtvig programmes also run by the Education and Culture Executive Agency. These give you the opportunity to get to know the everyday work of others in another country. The grant comes from your National Agency and is small scale to cover your travel and subsistence and the paperwork is specific and not difficult. 2) There are also opportunities under Grundtvig for organisations to organise learning partnerships for exchanges based on a common interest. An example that could be worth following up is centres for Community-based learning such as Garaget, those in the relay visits etc.

3) Identify key individuals and work out how to bring them in as multipliers for example some of them could come to Sofia. Some could use the mobilities described above to fund this. 4) Other European projects or networks should be invited to share the results of the project. Examples were www.cest-transfer.de which is on the social economy but has a Community Development module or REVES network for socially responsible territories. Group 4 CDF have a project on Debate, Dialogue Democracy and will relate it to TLCD CDF have a project with Maltese government on training Social Workers in CD European Social Platform has a conference on Civil Dialogue where CD dimension should be included. PACT has a project on Strengthening Civil Dialogue in Europe CEGA have a project on Development Education British Council in UK is working with CDF on a Dialogue project with UK and Slovenia Dialogue project in Portugal INLOCO on dialogue with citizens is a potential multiplier Armin wants to relate it to teaching students in University of Saarbrucken Armin will involve Board Members of PBW in dissemination CEGA would like to see a project on terminology for CD. CEBSD should develop a system of accreditation for courses on CD to support national trainers (with progression routes and exchange built into it.) Group 5 1.The core issues from all the relay visits should be integrated into the European Dimension and taken back to regional and national level. 2. Community Development Ideas, Visions and the material on needs assessment and on history of CD is useful for training professionals and needs a wider audience. 3. We need a strategy and methods to help us see the path, which avoids overprofessionalisation and leads to creative learning opportunities with the following characteristics  Participation and inclusion  Cross sectoral integrated approach (the Triangle)  Learning to live European lives at a local level  Development of Community Development working rules (standards?)  Developing a policy for TLCD and testing it in pilot training  Training for Trainers Notes on creative and innovative methodology for dissemination

Clarity about the purpose, awareness of human relations, opportunities for good interaction are just as important as creativity and innovation in techniques and methods Relay system has potential for replication as it does mean that knowledge is cumulative but it may be more effective if there were resources for some one person (in addition to the relay host) to accompany the whole process and distil the core of the exchange as it progressed. This person could also prepare a ‘handbook’ of hints and tips for making the most of exchange visits.

The power of the Image Images were used in the Laboratory to represent the message for example, the butterfly to represent the fragility of passing on information, knowledge and lessons from our exchanges, the ‘distillery’ to represent the process of making the messages, information and knowledge accessible and widely available, the labyrinth when we are inside and can’t see the path out, chaos pilots to help us take an aerial view, sugar-coated Europe or window-dressing to to symbolise shallow or false exchange of good practice. Images to take into the future were the boat Europe in Budapest and the Catalonian human castle to represent the horizontal and vertical connections between each individual and Europe, the learning spiral to represent a lifelong process of learning, Kirsten’s Earth’ – an image that we passed from hand to hand in our final session and represents our responsibility and the link between local and global.