Mother Nature - strengthening professional capacity to support mothers in personal transformation

Project summary

Mother Nature - strengthening professional capacity to support mothers in personal transformation Mother Nature aims to equip professionals with adult learning tools and skills to support and empower mothers in developing, recognising and validating skills acquired through the informal learning experience of becoming mothers in order to foster employability, socio-educational and professional development. We address the needs of mothers as adult learners highlighted by recent European researches and our target needs’ assessment. According to a Eurofound research, “motherhood is one of the key determinants of female labour force participation” and increasing the participation of women in the labor market is crucial to meet the Europe 2020 target to achieve an overall employment rate of at least 75% by 2020.Our target needs’ assessment has confirmed that in the role of mothers women are often left behind in their ability to fully engage in career path, despite of researches findings that the experience of maternity may highly enhance some of the soft skills that are a key-factor for joining the labor market. In most of the countries of the present partnership there is a lack of support for mothers in adjusting to their new roles, in increasing self-awareness and personal transformation, in integrate and validate the skills acquired through motherhood and in supporting workforce reintegration. Our concrete objectives are: 1. to develop and test adult learning resources (website and online forum, training curriculum, workbook and visual aid) with a minimum of 30 participants (mothers and professional educators) and reaching a minimum of 6800 wider audience through various means of communication; 2. to improve professional competences and skills of up to 415 professionals working with mothers 3. to develop and disseminate a “Peer-to-peer mother learning group” model with mothers and test it with a minimum of 50 mothers 4. to engage up to 10 mothers in the 5 partner countries in opportunities to organise and lead peer to peer groups in their communities (involving 3 of disadvantaged target group: single mothers); 5. to consolidate and disseminate the project’s best practices in the 5 partner countries and to professionals throughout the EU with freely available online resources. Number and profile of participants in our activities: Adult learners (mothers): 55 Professionals/educators (working with mothers): 60 Wider audience/public: 6800 Activities: To design and set up a website and online forum to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and best practices in non-formal learning programmes for mothers. To create training curriculum for trainers and test it on a pilot training. To create workbook for supporting work of individuals in peer-to-peer mother learning groups and test it on a pilot training. To create a visual aid to support learning on the topic. To disseminate the project results through multiplier events in different countries. Methodology: As project management and decision making tool we use Sociocracy which is a system of governance and organisational structure. As design tool we will also use permaculture which is a powerful design method for integrative sustainable systems. We will adopt permaculture principles & strategies for running our project. As facilitation tools during transnational meetings will be used such as The Way of Council, Open Space Technology, Pro Action Café, ABCD strategic planning, Sustainable Project Design. All these tools will be used as well in training events. To develop our learning resources we will use nature-based and art-based methods, psycological methodology and permaculture. Expected impact Local level: Mothers participating in the project will have strengthened their sense of authentic vocation and will be able to organise and lead peer-to-peer groups of mothers which will have positive impact on their local communities. Professionals working with mothers will be able to implement the tools learned during the training course in their daily work with mothers and families, as well as disseminating those tools between their colleagues and public or private organisations. Regional and national level: Strengthened networks on the field of women empowerment on the regional and national level by inviting professional working with mothers, policy makers, public administration executives, staff of private social body to participate in our local activities as well as in our multiplier events. European and international level: International collaboration will be strengthened amongst the partner organisations and their networks, to facilitate further cooperation, exchange and initiatives. With this project we are aiming to create a sustainable impact on the field of women empowerment and family support as we are developing our course curriculum in a way that it can be used and implemented within different organisational, cultural and social settings.