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PAR Practitioners Program – Summer 2023 – Now open for subscription!

*Klik hier voor Nederlands*

We are already entering the sixth year of the PAR Practitioners Program, and we are happy to organize the PPP Summer Edition 2023!

Do you want to enable people to tackle complex issues together? Or do you want to make more impact from your own work in tackling a social problem? Then join us!



How do we create ownership?

Generally, in our work we often wonder how we can get people on board and get them to participate in ‘our project’. Even when we think we have the perfect solution for something, we are disappointed by the lack of energy in society to take advantage of it or join us. The point is that people usually don’t want to participate in someone else’s project. They especially want to participate in their own project! So how do we create a sense of ownership over the project? How can we get people’s full commitment to start the movement that will enable them (and us) to achieve their ideal?

What is Participatory Action Research?

Participatory Action Research (PAR) is an approach that enables groups of people to initiate the desired positive change together. In the PAR Practitioners Program you will learn how you can facilitate this social movement through PAR!

The PAR practitioners of SevenSenses

SevenSenses is a growing network of Participatory Action Researchers around the world. We carry out PAR projects in all kinds of different settings on various complex problems. SevenSenses’ Participatory Action Researchers love their work because of the impact it has on communities and organizations, how it empowers people and simply because it makes people more confident, cooperative and happy! Our PAR Practitioners have all been trained by SevenSenses in the PAR methodology, many of them through the PAR Practitioners Program!

Free Handbook Participatory Action Research!

Register now for the Summer edition of the PPP 2023 and receive the Participative Action Research handbook authored by Madelon Eelderink, PAR trainer and founder of SevenSenses, for free at the start!

Learning goals

In this PPP you will learn:

  • The basic principles and ethics of Participatory Action Research;
  • How to set up a PAR design;
  • Skills in various PAR methods;
  • Community psychology and factors driving motivation to act together;
  • How to facilitate the co-creation of innovative solutions between local stakeholders;
  • About power dynamics and how they influence the co-creation and realization of initiatives;
  • Communication and social skills and your role as a Participatory Action Researcher;
  • How to monitor, evaluate and expand jointly created initiatives;
  • How you inspire many people with what you achieve with PAR!

Wilma van der Vlegel, participant of the PPP 2019, Training & Internship Track:

“The PPP program teaches you new research skills that you are not actually offered in other programmes. You learn to think and look from other perspectives, in particular the citizen’s perspective, and to adapt flexibly to your co-researcher. The training teaches you to use creative methods when collecting and analyzing the data, which can lead to surprising solutions.”

Program Tracks & Certificates

The PPP consists of a 5-week training and a 13-week internship, starting from June 5, 2023. As a participant of the PPP, you can choose from a Training Track – only the 5 weeks of training – or the Training & Internship Track – 5 weeks training followed by a 13 week internship, where your internship starts in September 2023.

Certificate

When you complete the Training Track, you will receive the ‘Certificate of Participation’. If you have completed the Training & Internship Track and have demonstrated that you have acquired all PAR competencies during your internship, you will receive the ‘Certificate of Achievement’. The latter makes you a SevenSenses certified, independent Participatory Action Researcher with which you can participate as a freelancer in paid SevenSenses projects, in the Netherlands and/or abroad!

Training Track

During the Training Track you will learn everything about PAR principles, the PAR Cycle, PAR methods and co-creating solutions with communities, sustainable impact and everything involved in the PAR process. During these 5 weeks you have training every Monday evening and Thursday. After the course, you’ll be packed with the skills you’ll need to conduct high-quality Participatory Action Research that you can apply in a variety of settings! 

Training & Internship Track

If you choose the Training & Internship Track, you follow the training of the Training Track and then do an internship at an organization or community, where you will apply PAR! You choose both the PAR subject and the organization involved. Another option is to participate in one of the SevenSenses internships, if available at that time. In a personal meeting beforehand, we will discuss what suits you best and go through the various options. During the internship period you will have online supervision with the group a total of six times (every 2 weeks), on Monday evening.

The supporting assignments of the PPP are set up in such a way that it helps you to gain experience with what you have learned during the training courses of the PPP and – for Training & Internship participants – in preparation for your internship.

The team of PAR trainers

Denise
Denise Filippo
Minke Dijkstra
Geertjan Aleven
Madelon Eelderink spreker
Madelon Eelderink
Wout Peters

Wout Petersparticipant of the PPP 2020, Training & Internship Track:

 

“The PPP program and Madelon’s Participatory Action Research handbook crossed my life path at the right time. For the Master Healthy Aging Professional I was looking for answers to difficult questions within my innovation ‘From Disease and Care to Health and Behavior’. The answers turned out to be packed in PAR and with the help of Madelon’s knowledge and enthusiasm I was able to find them within the PPP Thanks to the PPP I started working as a real Change Agent with Participative Action Research and thus gained my own job.”


The facts

Start Training Track: June 5, 2023

Training days (Training Track): every Monday evening from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm and every Thursday from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm for five weeks. See the exact dates under ‘modules’.

Start Internship (Training & Internship Track): early September 2023

Online supervision during the internship: September 11 and 25, October 9 and 23, and November 6 and 20, 2023 from 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. via Zoom

Language: In 1 group with English speakers: English. With 2 groups, 1 group will be Dutch-speaking.

Self-study: reading and doing assignments (4-8 hours per week).

Literature: Handbook Participatory Action Research. Building a better world together (second edition). Written by SevenSenses founder Madelon Eelderink

Trainers: Denise Filippo, Geertjan Aleven, Minke Dijkstra and Madelon Eelderink

Location: Utrecht University (exact location to follow)

Difficulty level: HBO+ level of thinking

Maximum number of participants: maximum 12 per group (full is full). The training will continue with a minimum of 7 registrations. Maximum 2 groups.


Prices:

  • Training Track: €2,450 ex VAT.
    Reduced price for Freelancers (ZZP) and students: €1,270 ex VAT
  • Training & Internship Track: €2,950 ex VAT.
    Reduced price for freelancers (ZZP) and students: €1,570 ex VAT


STAP-budget

Unfortunately, no STAP-budget can be requested for the Didactic mastery course.
Are you registered with the Chamber of Commerce (KvK)? Then the costs can be entered as operating costs. The tax benefit is always greater than the subsidy you receive with the STAP-budget.
Read more.


Registration deadline: 22nd of May 2023.
Register by sending an email to: denise.filippo@seven-senses.nu. Describe in the e-mail:
1. Track of your choice: Training Track or Training & Internship Track;
2. Whether you subscribe via your organization, as independent professional (ZZP) or as student
3. Your contact details (among which the address for your invoice),
4. If you choose Training & Internship Track: add a resume and short motivation.

After your registration you will receive the invoice and studyguide from our secretary Milica. The invoice must be paid no later than 1 June 2023. Is this not possible? Let us know in time! Payment in installments is possible.

Modules of the Training Track

June 5PAR basics – why do we do what we do?

June 8 PAR cycle and PAR methods for System Exploration – how does it work and how do we collect perspectives?

June 12Interviewing and analysis – how to make sense of data

June 15PAR methods for Solution Identification – how do we let solutions emerge from a group? (extra: social competence & ethics)

June 19PAR methods for Action-plan Co-creation – how do we facilitate groups in building appropriate action plans? (extra: intercultural communication)

June 22System dynamics – how do we deal with the gap between the system- and living world? (extra: power relations, roles and responsibilities)

June 26Formalization and transfer – how do we allow ownership to flourish and create sustainable impact? (extra: organization and process management)

June 29Monitoring & Evaluation – how do we retain the energy and how do you complete a PAR?

Friederike Ertmer, deelnemer of the PPP 2018, Training & Internship Track

“I really enjoyed the PAR course given by Madelon! She knows what she is talking about and lets you discover what PAR means with great pleasure, reflection on yourself and your ideas about it, guidance and practice. I learned so much in a short time and was able to put it into practice right away on my first project.”

 

Are there still questions?

Check out our FAQ! Is your question not answered there? Please contact Madelon – madelon.eelderink@seven-senses.nu, 0639895095 or Denise – denise.filippo@seven-senses.nu, 0639895095.

Hope to see you soon at the SevenSenses Action Research Academy!

Pictures of former PPP editions

Pictures of PAR in action during PPP internships