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Written by Colin Neilands
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Wednesday, 01 December 2010 18:22 |
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Community leaders from across the North East celebrated the end of a year long programme called Leadership in a Shared Society. The programme was supported by the NE Peace III Partnership and was designed and delivered by the WEA in partnership with Mediation Northern Ireland and the Interaction Institute for Social Change. |
The celebration event took place in Galgorm Manor, Ballymena on Friday 26th November. The participants reviewed their learning around leadership skills and addressing community relations issues.
The following are a sample of their reflections -
"Having spent the last thirty three years in a management role I can honestly say that the training I received on programme 1b "was as good as it gets".In our day to day jobs as managers we seldom get time to reflect on how we manage or lead in our communities. The training gave me time to reflect and give me food for thought on how I could improve on my own performance and how I could inspire others in the community to become leaders. The programme facilitators /tutors were excellentand the programme was delivered in a friendly non intimidating environment.I enjoyed the company of all the other participants and and valued the wide range of knowledge and expertise that they brought to the programme.The programme enabled new friendships to be established and I have now included all to my existing network of contacts."
"There was great support throughout the year, excellent communication and an ideal platform for making and building relationships - actually I would go a stage further and say I made real friends on the programme with like-minded community values - that was the magic part."
“I learnt how to deal with tough situations more confidently, and that I had the skills all along… I just needed to tap into them… it was helped by Prog 1b’s excellent facilitators and the friends I gained along the way!”
"I found the course very worthwhile. I felt it was well organised and I liked the content. The trainers were excellent and always ready to help. At all times, they themselves demonstrated through their 'teaching' the techniques they were giving us for working with our communities. The resource allocation very much allowed us to put into practice what we had learned. It was an excellent networking opportunity, giving us a chance to meet with groups we would not usually meet."
"Participation in 1b has changed me from a supposed leader to an effective leader in the community."
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