In November and December 2021, over 80 Inter-Religious Council (IRC) and Faith-Based Organization (FBO) nominees from eight countries were trained as national Mind-Heart Dialogue teams and equipped to support the Faith and Positive Change for Children (FPCC) initiative. Facilitators were from diverse faiths and included male faith leaders, women of faith and youth. They will support their IRC to set up a Multi-Faith Advisory Committee on Children (MFACC) that brings faith leaders, FBOs and UNICEF together to find shared priorities and partner for positive change for children. They will integrate Mind-Heart Dialogue into the internal structures and mechanisms of the MFACC; and be deployed to facilitate Mind-Heart Dialogue according to their priorities.
Even from four-days of training, there is evidence of attitude change among participants. The process is not primarily to train people in an approach or an intervention, but rather to shift mindsets and create an experience that participants can replicate. Participants clearly expressed what made Mind-Heart Dialogue different and were eager to integrate it into other work and facilitate as a team. They shared testimonies of personal shifts in behavior within the training, and many immediately used activities in the spaces that they could easily access, demonstrating their confidence, ability and commitment to the approach.
View the JLI FPCC page