Aiming to seek out our potential for innovation is a strategic and long-term objective of our organization. That is why the project strove to create and nurture connections to other European organisations to 1) learn from them on the one hand, and to 2) share our professional practices and exchange innovative tools, methods and approaches on the other hand. Furthermore, our objective to systemically assess and facilitate individual learning goals, organisational, and structural needs is grounded in our long-term strategy, and action plan based on the concept of lifelong learning. Therefore personal and professional development as an organizational aim is embedded on our working culture. Our impact field requires complex internal and external development strategies and pathways, where personal and professional growth is being understood as a fundamental element of sustainability and the adaptive learning culture that we need for the dynamic ecosystems we work in.
The project "Bridging together - enhancing capacity for system change" was planned as a complementary mechanism to strengthen personal as well as professional growth of MitOst's staff members, facilitators and volunteers. During the application process, we identified the focus area for our capacity building based on evaluations with our staff members and community. Result of aformentioned evaluation was the implication that being providers of transformative learning experiences and implementers of educational programmes requires continuous improvement of strategic management, leadership skills, intercultural and conflict management competencies, as well as skills to coach and facilitate various international and crosssectoral partnerships in the EU. Implementing the project we followed up on those aims and all activities that were impleneted benefited the personal and professional growth of our staff members and facilitators greatly.