Spain: Best practices in training

EVA Training School was conceived as a cultural action and intends to be a training and meeting point aimed at the development of co-operation values and dialogue. Its mission is to bring about social and personal change. EVA helps people to avail themselves of the necessary instruments to practice social and political responsibility through new participatory methods.

EVA is a democratic school made up of people who have been long involved in the local area where the school is located. The will of its members is to develop the personal capacities and potentialities to feel, think and act in an autonomous, critical and creative way. In order to achieve such an aim, the training delivered by the school is structured around the following six strands:

• Technical capacity building: trainees are provided with the necessary tools to manage day-to-day problems and to meet social and labour-related challenges.
• Social thinking: personal growth is conceived as a way to foster popular participation.
• Exchange of experiences: the school is also a meeting point where participants wishing so can exchange their experiences with others with a view to contributing to social change through the establishment of a network of common actions and aims meeting local needs.
• Monographic sessions shaped as events and talks about current affairs or general topics open to absolutely everybody. These events can be jointly organised with NGOs, residents’ associations, adult education schools, etc.
• Social library conceived as a shared space where to find all sorts of documents and pedagogical resources for people involved in social movements.
• Virtual platform, a tool through which to disseminate training ideas and programmes at the local, national and international levels as a project of educational interco-operation.

Those responsible for this school summarise their philosophy by saying that in addition to understanding the world, what really matters is changing it.

More info:
www.ftc.cat