12 graduates from 5 countries emerge from Local SPACE programme
As part of the EU-funded Local SPACE project and in partnership with Coach Mentoring Ltd., 12 new coaches and mentors from five countries have emerged from the first cohort of the Core Coaching and Mentoring Skills (CCMS) programme.
The CCMS programme in cohort 1 was made up of 9 online sessions and more than 30 online learning hours including practice and reflection. The programme builds reflective locally led leadership combining theory, live practice, e-learning and structured reflection.
In an online graduation ceremony held this week, Pawel Mania – Director of the HLA congratulated the participants for completing the course. He said: “I want to congratulate everyone on this amazing achievement because it takes time. I admire everyone’s commitment and thank you for your commitment throughout the programme. As the first cohort, I want to welcome you to the HLA Community.” Pawel added that there are many more resources and opportunities to engage with in the HLA to strengthen and support the work they do in their countries.
Ida Marie Højgaard Jørgensen, Consortium Manager – ERC Local SPACE congratulated the cohort and acknowledged their time, willingness to learn, effort and commitment. Noting that the lessons learned from the programme are useful for both private and personal life. She said: “When you sign up for a course like this, it shows that you are the type of person that wants to keep learning and keep developing yourself and it also shows that you have an interest in learning from others and developing others – that is the whole core of the localSPACE project.” Ida added that the project looks forward to further supporting the cohort to utilise the new knowledge in their networks and countries.
Faisal Mislit, HLA Crisis Response Project Lead who anchored the ceremony, said: “This is a proud moment for the project and for the consortium – with this opportunity to celebrate strengthening the capacity of local leaders.”
The graduation marks the beginning of curated opportunities for this cohort through HLA’s global coaching roster.
“This programme clearly brings strong value…”
Claude de Marie Nezehose, a participant from the DRC said: “Many times it is difficult to extract people’s potential because of the way we set up meetings, conversations, listening – these can hamper inclusion. This course gave me the opportunity to reflect and taught me to use collective knowledge and experience; maximising the potential of local actors we work with to work better with them.”
Joella Sambo from DRC praised the quality of the facilitators and the exchange with other participants. She said: “It was so impactful for me. Everything I do in my work is so good now because I received many tools from the programme which I use as a coach and mentor in my organisation now.”
Amjad Ali from Iraq said: “I’m very grateful to be part of this programme. The programme made me realise that coaching and mentoring are not separate from my life. I’ve been doing it but probably not in the right way. The programme helped me to learn tools and methodologies to continue to do it more consciously and in the very best way. I look forward to what comes next.”
Mukhtar Abba Kura, from Nigeria also shared a reflection on the “engaging and wonderful journey”. He said: “a major reflection I had throughout this programme is that informally everyone at some stage has been providing coaching and mentoring support to colleagues, relatives or people within the community, but this programme has enabled me to create a paradigm shift, to be quite deliberate and conscious when it comes to coaching and mentoring. Most especially to identify those potentials within individuals who are navigating life or career transitions. This programme has equipped me to cascade to other partners within our response.
Maryam Jabbo also from Nigeria said: “I look forward to supporting others especially in transition focused coaching because we have a lot of career disruption and organisational change and of course a lot of identity shift. I look forward to supporting others and continuing to improve my skills as well.
The consortium heartily congratulates Asmaa Abdulghani, Abigael Malonga, Luna Million, Claude de Marie Nezehose, Munira Mohammed, Amjad Ali, Mokili Pass Samuel Wana, Joella Sambo, Maria Guey, Mukhtar Kura, Maryam Jabbo, and Umar Muhammed Abubakar.
A second cohort of the Core Coaching and Mentoring Skills Programme is currently underway and we wish them great success!
