IAF Chapter Sweden facilitating “The Big Five”

As a result of war and instability, migration to Sweden has increased immensely over the last few years. Many different parts of our society are working on how to best welcome and integrate new arrivals and so is the Swedish Chapter of IAF.

When we arranged the EMENA conference in Stockholm 2015, we invited speakers to inspire us around how facilitation can contribute. Dedicated to make a difference, we contacted some of the organisations we know are working on the “the road in” and how to enable inclusion of migrants into the civil society. They came back to us and said: “You know what, we have identified that the biggest need we have is to work out how to coordinate all our efforts and collaborate in ways we never have tried before. We think you can help massively with facilitating that!” So, for the first time in history (in Sweden), the Red Cross, Save the Children, Church of Sweden, Swedish Sport Confederation and The National Forum for Voluntary Organisations all joined the same workshop, with General Secretary and five representatives from each organisation. The aim of the initial workshop was to work out why, what and how and by the end of the day, all 5 organisations declared a strong will to continue the process, on both national and local level.

As facilitators, we felt privileged as well as proud that we could contribute to this unique gathering and that the profession of facilitation so clearly made a massive difference. We will continue to support the process, facilitating more meetings and workshops, and we hope that our contribution can enable a smoother integration for many, resulting in a better society for all.

 

Malin Morén, CPF
Hedvig Mossvall, CPF
Anna Fundin, CPF