CONFLICT
AND COMMUNICATION
Arpino, 21 - 27 September 2007
The idea for the seminar "Conflict and Communication"
came from the results and recommendations of a number
of activities
conducted by CCIVS over the last 5 years, especially after having worked
a lot on the theme of cultural diversity and intercultural learning. The
experience and reflection were that the determination of constantly improving
the quality of voluntary service projects in general and of promoting
intercultural learning in particular, seemed to be closely linked to the
ability to constructively deal with conflicts and the need for good practices
of communication. In parallel, the reflections of doing an update of a
1997 booklet on "Volunteering in conflict areas" started. It
was decided that it should not only be an update, but also include ideas
of how to deal 
with
conflicts at an interpersonal and organisational
level. The idea of a seminar on the theme of conflict and communication
thus came as a natural development of the projects and reflections that
were previously developed.
The seminar was
organised in the frame of the "All different, all equal" campaign
of the Council of Europe.
Aims
and objectives
The overall aim
of the seminar was to improve the capacity of voluntary service organisations
to relate to conflicts in a broad sense, and increase their communication
skills in general, and their intercultural sensitivity in 
particular.
The more concrete objectives were defined in the following way:
* To investigate the link between conflict transformation and intercultural learning, through encouraging and improving reflection on cultural diversity and intercultural learning in voluntary service projects.
*To propose and discuss concepts and instruments that can improve the ability of the participants and their organisations to constructively deal with micro"/ interpersonal conflicts within projects and organisations.
* To share experiences of conflicts, and good and bad practices of conflict management, within voluntary service projects and organisations.
* To explore the different strategies of communication, in order to intervene, prevent and constructively deal with conflicts.
* To improve the capacity to (co-)organise constructive voluntary projects in areas currently or recently torn by violent conflicts.
* To discuss issues relevant to the development of the CCIVS booklet on "Volunteering and Conflict".
Report of the seminar
Mette's handouts
