The Parenting for Peace Academy was developed to expand the pool of Women without Borders Trainers approved to deliver Train the Trainer workshops to MotherSchools Teachers and Notetakers. With an eye to sustainability and scale, the Parenting for Peace Academy equips WwB Trainers, under the direction and management of WwB and the MotherSchools programme, with the tools and knowledge to successfully train local capacity—community leaders, psychologists, social workers, teachers—who will in turn implement the MotherSchools curriculum in their communities.
Given the ever-growing nature of the MotherSchools movement, Women without Borders (WwB) recognised the need to expand the current pool of WwB Trainers to facilitate future scalability of the programme and sustainability in the years to come. Thus, the idea of a Parenting for Peace Academy was borne. In the form of a training workshop, potential candidates learned about the MotherSchools philosophy, gained knowledge of early warning signs of radicalisation and the eight developmental stages of a child, and developed tools for building confidence and competence in mothers from diverse backgrounds.
Upon completing the Academy, these trainers may be called upon to co-lead 2-3 day trainings with MotherSchools Teachers and Notetakers in different geographies in which the MotherSchools programme is being implemented. This includes working closely with the WwB team and co-trainer in contextualising the teachings and planning the agenda, travelling to project locations, and staying up to date with latest research and reports in the field of P/CVE, security, and gender. Trainers may additionally be asked to conduct in-depth interviews with MotherSchools Teachers, Notetakers, and Participants, and to participate and support with weekly monitoring of MotherSchools progress throughout the programme sessions.
The inaugural Parenting for Peace Academy took place on 10 & 11 September 2022 in Vienna, Austria. Twelve candidates with backgrounds in intercultural management, education, communications, (psycho)therapy, and activism participated in the two-day training workshop. WwB’s lead trainers, Professor Ulrich Kropiunigg, Georgina Nitzsche, and Maynat Kurbanova, led the workshop, which included background lectures as well as interactive exercises that allowed the participating trainees to showcase their own facilitation skills and to become familiar with the material from the lectures. The candidates left the training equipped with the know-how and capability to train future MotherSchools Teachers and Notetakers in the MotherSchools philosophy and curriculum.
