BRIDGING FUTURE COACHING AND PEACE EDUCATION IN MIKKELI

During the 3-day meeting, we aimed to deepen our understanding of the Future Coaching method developed by the host partner, and looked for ways to combine the approach with Peace Education as well as democratic values. Through knowledge exchange and sharing best practices from our organizations’ day-to-day work with youth workers and young people in our respective countries, we explored how the different project methods relate to one another, and looked for the value that we can create with our project in increasingly polarized societies. 

For instance, we examined future perspectives based on the global context of the present, and the morals and ethics behind utopias and seemingly perfect future scenarios. Just as well, we discussed the challenges and means for achieving a “positive peace” in the sense of equality, justice and sustainability, reflecting on how principles of democracy and peace can be applied in everyday life. Each partner played an active and valuable role: from World of Tolerance presenting its Peaceful Future methods, to ISZ showcasing approaches for implementing local peace actions. It was especially useful to learn about the weaponization of the concept of “peace” in Georgia in anti-democratic processes.

Not only did we discuss critical topics, deepen our knowledge and enhance our creativity, but we were also invited to see one of the newest schools in Mikkeli. The school, among others, hosts a youth centre. The visit of both left us inspired and motivated.

Content-related workshops were then followed by a deep-dive into project management, as we established a concrete framework of the activities and results we are aiming to work on and achieve – Peace Education workshops, courses and materials – in the next couple of months. With a fresh perspective and innovative ideas on the project topics, we discussed the ins and outs of the development processes that we are working on. During the PeaceAct project, we do not only promote cooperation, respect, mutual understanding and peaceful actions in words, but actually implement all of the trainings as well as partner meetings in this spirit. The democracy we are promoting stands on active participation and peaceful actions.

To round off the productive days, we immersed ourselves in Finnish culture – sharing moments of relaxation and reflection in the sauna, which became a wonderful opportunity to strengthen our partnership and mutual understanding.

The meeting was coordinated by MONDO in a collaborative and carefully thought-out process. Shokkin made sure that our innovative ideas and agreements stay gathered in a visually attractive graphic recording, which will keep us on the right path during the upcoming stages of the project. We know that co-creation is tough and always takes more time than planned, but feel ready for it.