Events

We put this question to ourselves when we discussed a lot about anxiety (we were just initiating the curriculum-writing project entitled “From anxiety to hope”, an action that was part of our project funded by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops). And we started looking for the answers when our leadership training was lunched in September 2023.

With 17 participants, leaders of NGOs and different civil programs, we started testing our training, this first edition of the training started on the 26th of September. So the training is already going on, with the participation of a cheerful group of local leaders. We learn together -among others- about issues/questions of leadership, organizational development, organizational culture, competencies, resources, radar and future. Up until now the topics of “the learning organization”, “our aims”, “the culture of feed-back” and “reflection, self-reflection” were discussed. The training reflects all these questions from the perspective of balance (in terms of uncertainty - certainty, anxiety - hope, etc.), and comes up with a content that is not only suitable for competency development, but also takes into account the anxieties associated with leadership and organizational work.

We are thankful for the trainers of this program, to psychologist Irma Simó, to trainers István Kerekes, Anna-Helga Klárik and Timea Molnár members of team Kaleidoscope. In the future we will involve university teacher Levente-József Tánczos as well. We hope for they bringing us later on contentful presentations, leading very practical activities, urging us participants to mentor each other and hope for providing our supervision during the training.

7 out of 15 network member organizations were involved in our initiative which consisted of organizing different adult education programs that aim the education of target groups in questions related to anxiety, fear, distress and mechanisms of coping with them effectively in person and on community levels. Pro Educatione through the fund given by the USCCB contributed partially to the realization of the following projects (there were subcontracts written for this purpose, and organizations reported about their activities with descriptive and photo reports):

Project title: "Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all." (Mt 6,32b) Catholic adult education in Transylvania in the service of managing societal level anxiety in crisis time – adult education project during the year 2023

Project coordinator: Association Pro Educatione

Project sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)

Pro Educatione is also present there with two adult education program offers in this small publication, which is the collection of newly developed abuse prevention programs that are locally developed and proposed by professionals and practitioners. This brochure is now published online, containing -in an expanded form- the description of 12 abuse prevention program offers. The brochure provides detailed information about how the given abuse prevention program works, there are also contact information enlisted in order to facilitate the reach of different professionals.

Mainly local NGOs offer these programs, aiming to achieve with them the various small local communities. We highly recommend this brochure into the attention of all school principals, head teachers, school counselors and community organizers from our region. 

This brochure was elaborated within a mental health prevention program initiated, launched and financed by the Local Council of Miercurea-Ciuc in 2022, with the professional coordination of Association Áradat.

The role of professional communities, the meaning of existence in community, how to maintain a community on long term, challenges and difficulties in community life, small professional joys along community life - these were the topics in focus at the first network meeting of year 2023. 

Pro Educatione organized this small-scale conference in Csíksomlyó, where our guest lecturer was Kati Czirjék, the creator of the ‘Women Entrepreneurs in Transylvania’ social media group.

The first program point was a spiritual one, we participated in holy Mass organized by Caritas Alba Iulia, which was the farewell mass of Saint Mark Chapel in Jakab Antal House. After a joint lunch the group discussed professional issues related to the topic of the meeting. In this workshop, our speaker briefly outlined a theoretical framework, which was Scott Peck’s model of community building. After this the lecturer reflected individually on the difficulties and challenges experienced by network member organizations and shared her own experiences. Topics such as the follow-up in adult education programs, long-term group retain through conscious community building, effective organizational communication, knowledge and practices the non-profit sector can adopt or copy from the for-profit, pricing trainings, barter campaigns in the civil sector, the importance of reserves, tolerable compromises for the realization of precisely formulated and clear goals – were shortly discussed.

In a third program point the general assembly of Pro Educatione discussed issues related to the leadership and management of the association, while concerned the ongoing projects and future activities as well.

We thank participants for sharing their individual and organizational experiences, for asking their questions in forum, and for their contribution to the implementation of the program. 

The costs of this network meeting were covered by the grant we got from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).