More than words - Two-day workshop on creative methods, Sign up!

Our Organisation

forumZFD (forum Civil Peace Service) provides training and project support in Germany and abroad. With its members, it advocates the renunciation of violence-based policies, reinforcement of civilian resources in the state and society and democratic participation of all social, ethnic and religious groups.

forumZFD currently has more than 80 employees working in 14 locations in Germany, the Middle East, the Western Balkans, and South-East Asia. forumZFD has been working in Lebanon since 2009.

The Lebanon-team consists of 18 staff members working in the programme areas of Community Mobilising, Dealing with the Past and Capacity Development.

In the field of Capacity Development forumZFD supports conflict transformation and peace-building projects and enhances the capability of NGOs to work in a conflict sensitive manner through training and mentoring. The portfolio of trainings forumZFD developed and implemented with partner organisations includes a broad variety of conflict transformation tools and methods such as Reflecting on Peace Practice (RPP), Conflict Analysis, Mediation and 'Do no Harm', just to name a few. 

Context

Communication and group dynamics forms an integral part of the daily work conflict transformation in general and in the project of forumZFD and its partners. The ability to constructively communicate, give and receive feedback, facilitate personal development and improve group, and work-processes is of outmost importance. In particular, considering the diverse social settings we  operate in. Such abilities have to be context-sensitive and adaptable. Given this multi-facetted and sometimes sensitive working environment, having a wide range of communication tools is beneficial for enabling non-violent conflict transformation. 

Our approach

Through giving a workshop on creative methods of communication, we offer an opportunity for individuals who are interested in learning more about how to interact with others. These methods can be applied in a wide range of settings and facilitate improved group-dynamics, in professional as well as personal life. The workshop will take place on 15-16 March. Location will be announced shortly.

What we do

One cannot not communicate – Paul Watzlawik

We communicate not only with spoken or written words. Communication is more than words; it is also body language or the tone of the voice. In arts different sources of communication are being used, e.g. painting, playing or writing poems. And often one understands a picture, photography or a play without words. To work with tools and methods which have their roots in art and creative work, enables wider and deeper processes when working with groups or individuals. It helps the participants to be more aware of a wider variety of possibilities of human interaction and supports the participants to develop their own (not only) professional personality. In this workshop, Henk Goebel will include practical learning of such tools. He is a German actor, social worker and drama therapist and has previously worked with creative methods, as well as Playback Theater, as a means of dealing with and understanding trauma.

In this workshop we will include practical learning of creative tools for facilitation and communication, aimed at opening and deepening discussions and work-processes. These tools and methods can be applied in a range of settings and enhance understanding of group processes, methods of communication and evaluation, team-building, and personal development. We will also work with the Bruce Tuckman group-phases model. This model helps to understand and to work with processes of group dynamics. The workshop includes a detailed description of all used methods and their purposes- first in English, later on in Arabic.

Our theories of change

If the professionals have a better understanding of and knowledge about tools and methods with creative elements, they have a wider variety to deal with the challenges while working with groups in general, and in the field of conflict transformation in particular. It's difficult or maybe impossible, to describe and transform conflicts only by words. A lot of creativity and devotion is needed in order to develop confidence that conflicts can be changed in a positive way.