GEN-Finland’s coaches wanted to deepen their methodological expertise in project management and in conflict management tools.. This project was created to provide them with new facilitation and coaching tools. With these new tools, our "Yhteisövalmentajat" coaches could better provide professional facilitation services within our member communities and for our network as well as for individual members. Our objective was to learn more about: 1) conflict management methods 2) communal decision-making models 3) group dynamics 4) versatile facilitation skills and 5) power-sharing governance.
Coaching Communities project ("Yhteisövalmentajat") was created from GEN-Finland's (Global Ecovillage Network Finland) need to provide active facilitation support for the formation and development of sustainable communities. GEN-Finland: official name in Finnish: Suomen kestävän elämäntavan yhteisöt ry (SKEY)) is a voluntary work operated non-profit association that promotes sustainable lifestyles. GEN-Finland operates as a central hub for the Finnish ecovillages and communities of sustainable life. It networks consist also of NGOs and interested citizens. Our association members and member communities were facing problems in relation to conflict management in communities. They needed to update their project management skills and tools about conflict management in order to facilitate group processes in our member communities better.