Empathy and Art of Life

Social Competencies through Non-Violent Communication

 

In collaboration with:

 

Social peace is one of the core values that promote social and civil progress. However, the diffcult to build positive human relationships, marked by peace and full understanding of the other, often prevents the due application of the talents and the development of personal resources.

What was it?

The partnership "Empathy and art of life. Development of Social Skills through Non-Violent Communication" united organizations from six European countries, representing the major geographical areas of our continent, in a project aimed to teach people to create new ways of relating with others, inspired by the principles of Non-Violent Communication (NVC) developed by psychologist Marshall B. Rosenberg. The Non-Violent Communication is a method that helps people communicate with themselves and with others in a more conscious way, developing and strengthening their social skills, such as empathy and self-esteem, in order to enrich their lives and that of others.

This project was realizated with the support of the Grundtvig programme for adult education of the European Union. The countries and the partners involved were:

• France - Centre social la Garde, Marseille
• Germany - Lila Offensive e.V. / Projekt Frauenkreise, Berlin
• Italy - Fondazione Franceschi Onlus, Florence
• Lithuania -Panevėžio rajono Pažagienių mokykla-darželis, Pažagieniai
• Poland - Fundacja Euro Edukacja , Łódź
• United Kingdom - Wellfield Education, London

What are been the topics of the meetings?

The topics have been manifold: communication in gender relations among people from different cultures, in the family, at work, in school and on the web. To improve human relations in modern multicultural societies, citizens must learn to manage "differences among equals" in a peaceful manner, expressing their needs in a constructive and developing interpersonal skills appropriate for this purpose.

How was the project?

The partnership made a mutual learning process between partners from Eastern, Western and Central Europe possible. Learners as well as trainers and staff developed and deepened intercultural competencies by getting insights into concrete educational and life contexts of the partners.

Almost all learners did not experience a European exchange yet, some participants have never been abroad before. It was an amazing, inspiring, very positive and encouraging opportunity in particular for those of socially disadvantaged groups.

Learners could broaden their horizon, connect other country's name with concrete people, create human links and learn from each other directly. They developed abilities, skills and attitudes to practise tolerance, to be actively interested in other cultures and to search information on them individually; to discover the common ground between Europeans and to respect differences at the same time.

The European exchange made use of the phenomenon that borders of countries and cultures often come along with an acceptance of differences and thus respect. Overcoming borders within a European dialogue means to practise this respect, thus to 'train' a social competence and to bring it alive in the own contexts afterwards.

 

 

This project had been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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