October 2004, Birmingham
The day were grand - we packed a huge amount into one day, thanks to
everyone there, considering the late night following the Trapese G8
roadshow, and that 'Train the Trainers' courses usually last at least six
days! And thanks to The Nursery (squatted) Social Centre for hosting us.
The day included ways of creating a good and safe learning environment,
ways people learn, dealing with problems in groups, a wide variety of
methods available to trainers, presentations, and working on and planning
people's training ideas.
As well as a small pile of handouts, people came out with more confidence
in their skills, and plans of what they will do next, and how we'll
support each other.
People went away really inspired and confident about putting on workshops
on exciting topics around local activism, in their local areas. With
ongoing support, we should have a bunch of fab training session plans,
including at the following Friday's 'Day of Dissent' at the European
Social Forum in London.
It was a part of 'Train for Action', a series of skillsharing events for
activists in preparation for actions around the G8 in Scotland next year,
pulled together by people from the Blatant Incitement Project,
www.eco-action.org/blinc and Seeds for Change, www.seedsforchange.org.uk
Next workshop is on 8th November. There are other workshops planned already on 'direct action training skills' & 'legal & arrest training skills', and perhaps more as needed/requested – check out our website for details, and please get in touch, www.skillsharing.org.uk
Some comments from the day were, on what was the most useful part:
"the analysis of different activities and the chance to put that knowledge into practice when we planned training sessions"
"it was good fun and I feel like I have learnt a lot and I feel more confident, even enthusiastic about giving workshops!"
and general comments:
"Top buzz! Really good, I feel very lucky to be here and use this space"