Youth Speaks I Conflict Matters Workshop

For the first edition of our Conflict Matters Workshops we joined forces with Myrna Lewis to introduce Youth Speaks, a practice based on the innovative Lewis Deep Democracy methodology, to enable teachers and educators to have difficult conversations and resolve tension and conflict in school settings.

In essence, Youth Speaks proposes and outlines a structured way of intentionally leading people into stations of tension and potential conflict, knowing that innovative solutions, sustainable decisions, wisdom, and transformational growth can result from that exploration. It emphasises that every voice matters and that decisions are made most wisely when all are heard. This goes far beyond engagement with ideas and instead brings to the surface the emotions, issues, intuitions, and attachments that make a conversation more honest and real.

The workshop took place in Antwerp from 10-11 June 2016 and gathered 25 participants from all over Europe. As a result of this experience, six participants engaged in a longer training and became certified Youth Speaks instructors, who will help to spread this methodology in educational settings across Europe.

For the first edition of our Conflict Matters Workshops we joined forces with Myrna Lewis to introduce Youth Speaks, a practice based on the innovative Lewis Deep Democracy methodology, to enable teachers and educators to have difficult conversations and resolve tension and conflict in school settings.

In essence, Youth Speaks proposes and outlines a structured way of intentionally leading people into stations of tension and potential conflict, knowing that innovative solutions, sustainable decisions, wisdom, and transformational growth can result from that exploration. It emphasises that every voice matters and that decisions are made most wisely when all are heard. This goes far beyond engagement with ideas and instead brings to the surface the emotions, issues, intuitions, and attachments that make a conversation more honest and real.

The workshop took place in Antwerp from 10-11 June 2016 and gathered 25 participants from all over Europe. As a result of this experience, six participants engaged in a longer training and became certified Youth Speaks instructors, who will help to spread this methodology in educational settings across Europe.