By Jennifer Larkin | IAHV Peacebuilding Administration
In July 2017 the UK Trauma Relief Community Outreach Fund was established to train a UK based IAHV Peacebuilding response team who are trained to deliver the healing, resilience and empowerment tools and techniques. The main aim was to establish a team ready to take leadership roles and initiate programmes in the UK for traumatized and marginalized populations requiring psycho-social support.
IAHV Peacebuilding conducted its first training during the August 2nd – August 4th weekend in Manchester.
Two trainers from Germany and Belgium were flown in to deliver the esteemed ‘Healing, Resilience and Empowerment’(HRE)workshop attended by a contingent of 23 trainees from across the UK. The UK demographic represented by the attendees was as follows: London 7, Manchester 4, Liverpool 3, East Sussex 2, and Newcastle, Kent, Southport, Grimsby, Bolton and Edinburgh all with 1 participant.
This highly successful training achieved four key outcomes: the network of volunteers expanded and this group is now able to speak to the impact IAHV Peacebuilding programmes have on traumatized populations; a core team of volunteers were trained to deliver (or assist in delivering) IAHV Peacebuilding content to groups; a strong foundation of motivated and trained volunteers was established to move the agenda of IAHV forward in the UK to have a wider reach and deeper impact; additionally, a small fund was established to support the initial stages of the community outreach to cover a limited number of expenses. All of these outcomes support our main aim: to share the healing, resilience and empowerment methods to interested groups requiring our services.
Due to the successful initial fundraising campaign – and the training that followed, IAHV Peacebuilding now has an initial team trained and established who is readily able to respond to crisis situations and offer immediate opportunities for support after terror attacks, natural and man-made disasters and to marginalized groups.
Although more fundraising work will be required to create a sustainable outreach model in the UK, the initial activities represent a great first step in establishing our first foundational team of volunteers.
The next phase of the project is underway with local teams actively engaging in community outreach to spread the word about the IAHV Peacebuilding offering. This process can take time to institute since trust needs to be established amongst organizations who may not be familiar with IAHV yet experience shows that repeated contact and continual seed planting is a way to eventually open doors.
Our initial tranche of volunteers are taking many initial steps to establish these connections in their local areas and plans are underway to deliver presentations to numerous groups who have shown interest in our services. We are hopeful that our next report will be filled with news of these initial meetings and the outcomes that have been delivered from our volunteer’s efforts.
One of the attendees of the August training distributed smiley face noisemakers and happy stretchy characters to all in attendance. The message behind this simple gift was to remind participants of the power of sharing positivity with others (and amongst ourselves) and that a far-reaching helping hand is always available to those in need.
Thank you for helping us reach or initial goals and we look forward to having you join us on the new journey ahead.
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