Dear members,

from mid-February will start a path of thematic meetings on Group Facilitation held by Marta Scalvi and Elenia Penna, the facilitators who have been accompanying WWOOF Italy for almost three years. The course is aimed at those who wish to acquire self-facilitation tools and attitudes to bring into their groups.

The course will be structured in five online meetings (of 2h each) and an in-presence part (the latter for a total of 24 hours), during which we will practice and deepen the content seen in the corresponding online meeting, with the possibility of amalgamating more topics in one day.

The online meetings are open to all WWOOF Italy members.

Participation in the in-person meetings is limited to a maximum of 20 people, who are required to attend the entire course; it is not possible to attend only one meeting.

The training will be fully funded by WWOOF Italy. A contribution for room and board (if needed) will be required for participants in the in-person meetings.

In-person meetings will be held in the Florence area.

The thematic meetings will cover the following topics:

• The group and its dynamics: instructions for use.
• The group field, people-process-goals, the 4 spaces of facilitation, fractality in groups
• Communication that brings you closer (Nonviolent communication, recognizing your needs and knowing how to communicate them, co-listening. giving and receiving feedback)
• The power of emotions (Knowing and recognizing one’s emotions, map of primary emotions, importance of emotional discharges, methods of managing emotions and conflict (sharing, emotional scanner, theater of the oppressed, …)
• Agreements, roles and structure: recipes for effective and participatory meetings (Building meaningful agreements, formal and informal roles, vademecum for organizing effective meetings, reflection on decision-making methods)
• Governance styles, how to sew them to group needs, the “mantras” of sociocracy

The dates of the meetings

1st online meeting: Feb. 18 – from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. – The group and its dynamics
2nd online meeting: March 4 – from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. – Communication that brings you closer
1st in-person day: March 25 – from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. – practice
3rd online meeting: April 15 – from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. – The power of emotions 00 to 17.30 – the power of emotions
4th online meeting: May 6 – from 16.00 to 17.30
2nd in-person day: May 27 – from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. – practice
5th online meeting and last in-person meeting: between October and November, dates to be determined

To participate in the meetings, both online and in-person, you must register using the form below.
The exact dates of the meetings will be announced as soon as we have confirmation.

For more info you can email gabriele.taverna@wwoof.it

Who are Marta and Elenia

Marta Scalvi
Class of 1992, illustrator and facilitator; in groups I like to bring drawing as a tool for support, creative stimulation and co-design.

Elenia Penna
Class of 1993, international cooperator and facilitator; I support groups with my knowledge of social, co-planning and emotional management.

Together, as a team, we bring facilitation that accompanies groups in an integral way with the aim of holding together the care of people and relationships in the group, without losing sight of the concrete goals.
Our areas of intervention are: communication and conflict transformation, governance and organizational structures, co-design and strategy, collective inquiry and vision-mission-goal creation.
We also support collective realities with trainings with the aim of providing self-facilitation tools.
Among the groups we facilitate are associations, collectives, public and private entities, organizations and informal cores. Some of the groups we are following are WWOOF Italy, Mondeggi Bene Comune – Fattoria senza Padroni, Transistor, Change For Planet, LeGo Social Cooperative, Campi Aperti, Happy Raspberries Farm.

We trained by attending the three-year facilitation course curated by FacilArte and Next Culture, which is inspired by IFACE (Instituto Facilitacion y Cambio)