And working together on piloting our CPD courses.
From 22 to 26 of May 2023, the whole SUSWELL consortium organized a meeting in function of the restart of the project SUSWELL, the welcoming of our new partners from Kosovo and to work on the piloting and implementation of the four CPD-courses that support our mission of SUSWELL: “Building capacity towards sustainable wellbeing and health, through social innovation in local Communities of Practice (CoP) in Kosovo.
The first three days were organized by the Fehmi Agani University in Gjakova, starting with the onboarding of the two new partners; The University of Prishtina (UP) and Kadri Zeka in Gjilan. The goal was to get to know each other, but also getting the new partners acquainted with the mission, the critical events and the impact of the project so far. We used our own timeline-methodology for that. We looked back in time, evaluating on what made us happy and what made us said from the start of Suswell until now. Finally, we thought of lessons learned and on the planned and emergent outcomes so far. We developed an action plan for the future together, based on the timeline output, making use of the IDOARRT-method to make our actions more concrete.
Study visit Medica Kosova in Gjakova
On Wednesday 24th of May in Gjakova we visited ‘Medica Kosova’, a member of our ‘Gjakova-CoP. An NGO that supports survivors of gender- and sexual violence during the war in Kosovo in ‘98-‘99. There we brought survivors, professionals, local government and academia together to see how we could support individuals on the one hand and to see how we can get this important health issue in ‘all policies’ on the other hand. It was touching and inspiring at the same time. It made it clear again how important it is to develop in the local context where it happens.
Kolegji Heimerer College in Prishtina was the host of the two working days in Prishtina, after the three days in Gjakova. Both the CoPs, Gjakova and Prishtina, worked on piloting and implementing their four courses for formal and informal learning together: transition leadership, digital health literacy, inter professional work and futures literacy. All courses being developed by academia, professionals from NGO’s and students from different universities. A very nice example of co-creation in the field of learning for education and practice. The topics underpin and support the missions of the two COP’s and of that of Suswell as a whole.
For the piloting phase we searched for activities suited for the topic and specific contexts. On the topic of futures literacy, which is really new for most participants, we focus first on capability building of lectures and professionals in a ‘teach the teachers’ course, to be held in the beginning of November 2023.
On the topic of interprofessional work, we can already experiment on several parts and principals of the course, for example in a workshop on boundary crossing for students. In this case the piloting and implementing are already more integrated. The new partners joined all sessions and together we asked ourselves “How could of what is already developed fit in the context of the two new universities? We contextualized the developed blueprints of the courses to make it possible to allocate the course in the curricula of the new partners. In this process the NGO-members were fruitful critical friends and translated the formal courses to possibilities for informal learning for professionals in health & wellbeing in the context of Kosovo as well.
Pilot evaluation methodology
We also made a first draft of our ‘pilot evaluation-methodology’. A developmental evaluation tool to evaluate the piloting process of the CPD-courses on three levels: the quality of the course itself, the contribution to the mission of each CoP and the way it contributes to the mission of SUSWELL as a whole.
What’s next?
As said, the CPD-courses will be piloted in the separate CoPs in Gjakova and in Prishtina in the beginning of November and after that we will have one day in which all the members of SUSWELL share knowledge and outcomes in their own local processes of social innovation.