Due to a small number of people applying for the course, we changed the format by shortening its duration from 4½ days to 2 days. And we certainly packed a lot into the time. We were able to provide relevant and high-quality training from the staff of St Philip’s Centre and from the ICLS steering group. The training covered Diversity, Faith and Identity, Leadership and Teamwork, Conflict Resolution, Project Management, and Communication and Media.

We were expecting to take four students from Leicester College away, but in the event, one student was unwell and so we were down to three. However, due to the number of contributors, including members of the steering group, we were able to create a good atmosphere of enquiry and learning, and due to the small numbers we were able to tailor the course to the participants’ requirements, referring to different aspects of their lives and current leadership roles.

The evaluations we facilitated throughout the two days revealed many positives, some negatives, and some interesting ways to improve.

A major positive was the course content, and the fact that the participants were doing things and covering material which they had never done before. For example, each participant had the opportunity to present to the rest of the group, which greatly increased their confidence. Another aspect which received positive comments was the so-called ‘shield’ activities, where each participant reflects on part of their own life. The way the course was constantly grounded in the lives of the participants was one of its strengths.

Some of the negatives included not enough handouts, more variety of learning styles required, not enough ‘doing’ activities, especially in the afternoon session, and not enough free time to enjoy the beautiful countryside.

There are always many ways to improve, and I think we currently have the flexibility of approach which enables us to respond well to our participants. The key suggestions during the evaluation included adopting a more diverse approach to learning styles, providing more/better handouts from contributors, and ensuring that each session is broken up with different types of activity.

The feedback in the final evaluation session was very good. Each participant said they had learned something new that they could apply to their lives currently, and that they would like to look into using more in the future.

The application deadline for the June ICLS residential course is approaching – next Friday 30th May. Download an application form.

The course takes place from Monday 16th June to Friday 19th June and will be at Cliff College in Derbyshire.

The outline of the course looks like this:

Monday 16th June ~ Identity and Diversity Awareness
Led by Shanthi Hettiarchichi and Clare Downing of St Philip’s Centre, Leicester

• Exploration of personal identity – the different factors relating to identity
• Leicester’s identity – history of migration and mapping exercise
• Faith issues – what kinds of things do we need to consider when interacting with people from different faiths. We are particularly looking at faith because Leicester is unique in that it has eight major world faiths represented: Muslim, Jew, Christian, Jain, Hindu, Sikh, Baha’i and Buddhist, as well as an active Secular Society.

Tuesday 17th June ~ Conflict Resolution
Led by Olau Thomassen of Community Accord, Bradford

• Participants will understand, and be able to apply, the principles and practices of interest-based negotiation
• Participants will be able to successfully persuade parties in conflict to come together to explore their differences and negotiate possible solutions.
• Participants will have awareness of, and can adapt to the way group conflicts differ from conflicts between individuals.

Wednesday 18th June ~ Communication and Media
Led by Nick Booth of www.podnosh.com, Birmingham

• Exploration of print media, broadcast media and social media
• Understanding the importance of leaders delivering a clear message
• Be able to use the most relevant media to deliver a message to the appropriate audience
• Learn practical skills in being interviewed and interviewing others
• Come away with a useful set of practical guidelines covering topics such as press release format

Thursday 19th June ~ Leadership
Led by Kevin Ford of FPM leadership and management training, Leicester (tbc)

• Recognise different types of leader/leadership
• Impart an understanding that leadership can be learned
• Understand the different leadership styles used in different contexts
• An understanding of each participant’s unique leadership style – when are we leaders? How do we lead?
• Leadership and culture – inc. Using different leadership in different settings

Friday 20th June ~ Evaluation, Reflection and Action Planning
Led by Rachel Smith and Clare Downing of St Philip’s Centre, Leicester

• Opportunity to reflect on the week’s learning
• Chance to visualise how the learning will affect your way of working in the immediate, medium and long term
• Group discussion of what happens next and how

Who is it for and how do you book a place?

Places on ICLS are open to young adults aged 18 – 30 from across Leicester and Leicestershire – and each course aims to bring together mix of participants from education, the public sector, the private sector and the voluntary sector. Places cost £500 for participants funded by private sector organisations, £350 for participants funded by public or voluntary sector organisations, and £200 for self-funded participants. This includes all accommodation, food, training and course materials.

We don’t want anyone to be excluded by the cost and support can be made available if cost would be a barrier to your participation. Contact Rachel for details.

For more information, e-mail Rachel on icls@stphilipscentre.co.uk or download an Download an application form now.

Leicester’s ICLS is aimed at young adults. The guide age range is 18-30 years, although ICLS is far more interested in life-stage than age. ICLS recognises that there is great diversity among people and that there are myriad patterns people take when moving through their lives.

The young adult age group is probably one of the most diverse – there are people from all walks of life – those studying at FE colleges and universities, those taking their first jobs and others with more work experience behind them. Some live close to their families, others have moved away to follow a job or university place, and some may be starting their own families and ‘settling down’ into a new community. This, coupled with the ethnic and cultural diversity of Leicester, makes it an exciting and sometimes disconcerting place to be as a young adult.

This is where ICLS can be most effective; bringing together young adults from diverse backgrounds creates a network of trust- a place for ideas, action and friendship based on ICLS’s principles of honesty, openness, mutual respect and understanding.

Not only does ICLS facilitate these relationships, it also supports young adults by providing high quality skills training in conflict mediation, communication and media, and leadership, as well as examining personal identity and diversity, with a particular focus on Leicester’s context and the faith communities within it.

If you would like to take part in an ICLS residential course, there are two approaching, to be held at Cliff Conference Centre, Calver, Derbyshire. The dates are: 16^th-20^th June 2008 and 8^th-12^th September 2008. For more information email Rachel Smith or download an application form.

The next ICLS residential course will be held at Cliff Conference Centre in the Hope Valley, Derbyshire from Monday 16th June – Friday 20th June 2008. Places are already beginning to fill up so please download your application form here, feel free to drop me an email here to register your interest and download a flier here.

So far, our confirmed bookings for the course include Dr Shanthi Hettiarachchi, a lecturer in religion and conflict who will help guide us through the first day of exploring identity as individuals, communities and the community of communities that makes up Leicester and the surrounding area.

We are also very excited to be welcoming back Olau Thomassen to lead the day of conflict resolution skills training. Olau is the manager of the community mediation service, Community Accord, based in Bradford. The conflict resolution training will provide participants with:

• the understanding and ability to apply the principles and practices of interest-based negotiation
• the ability to successfully persuade parties in conflict to come together to explore their differences and negotiate possible solutions
• an awareness of, and ability to adapt to the way group conflicts differ from conflicts between individuals

There will be a detailed line-up of speakers and trainers, as well as predicted learning outcomes posted online shortly.

The final day of the ICLS European seminar was delivered by Dr. Sarah Perrigo of the University of Bradford’s Department of Peace Studies with Heather Blakey leading the more participatory workshops. The talks that Sarah delivered were incredibly detailed and the activities that Heather led enabled us to get our minds around the complexities of citizenship, what it means to be part of a democracy and explore our relationship to the state.

A key aspect for me revolved around the question, ‘can anyone ever truly represent you?’. I don’t think anyone can ever really represent anyone but themselves, but that is not what we are asking our MPs to do. We are asking them to make a judgement on our behalf.

My frustration about democracy is that many citizens seem to stop at putting a cross on a piece of paper and then putting it in a box, and unfortunately many politicians only expect this of people. Whilst being able to vote is extremely important, this does not mean we ‘are in’ a democracy. Democracy is not a state, it is a process.

This message encourages me that the ICLS network is important for citizen engagement, as everyone involved in ICLS becomes more aware of the social issues in their region and seeks to make changes. Whilst we delegate some decision-making authority to parliament, we should not assume that change only takes place in Westminster. It can take place here, now, if we pull together and get on with it.

The second day of the ICLS European Seminar was dedicated to the investigation of the effects of Climate Change with factual presentations delivered by Shiloh Fetzek, Research Associate and Co-coordinator for Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), and active workshops led by Heather Blakey from the International Centre for Participation Studies.

Here are a few of the worrying facts and predictions:

· There will be more intense storms due to a rise in sea temperature – think of Hurricane Catrina.

· Heat waves in Europe in 2003 in which many people died

· 1/5 world’s population lives within 10km of the coast – sea levels rising will affect these people, as well as the economic infrastructure in these areas

The key issue here is around resiliency. The deaths across Europe because of the heatwave in 2003 and the devastating effects of Hurricane Catrina, as well as the flooding in the UK last summer (whether or not this is climate change related) reveal our need to be able to cope not just with extreme weather events, but also with unpredictable weather.

There are also global implications for security and instability:

· Access to water and food security

· Population movements , what are beginning to be called environmental refugees – 1 billion by 2050 according to Christian Aid

· Health – as temperatures rise, malaria spreads to higher altitudes and moves north, it could start to become a problem in Southern Spain.

A striking comment from the President of Uganda:

“Greenhouse gases are an act of aggression against the developing world”

There is a definite imbalance between the carbon dioxide that developing countries emit (minimal) and the effects of climate change they will see (devastating).

Despite the gloomy details, there is hope. We have a choice. We can either squabble over resources – for example, the potential row with Russia over their attempt to claim the Arctic for its fossil fuel reserves, or, we can co-operate, we can assist developing nations to ‘leap-frog’ over the dirty stage of development and move directly to clean technologies. Not only will this help keep carbon emissions in check, but also education and development are ways to help manage population growth, another hot topic at the moment. The world population is currently at 6.5billion, and will rise to 9billion by 2050.

This evidence reinforces the importance of:

• acting out of hope rather than fear
• continuing the building of peace through developing intercultural understanding
• striving for social, economic and environmental justice
• active citizenship, holding the government to account and not being complacent about living in a democracy

On the first full day of the ICLS European seminar, Executive Director of the Centre for International Promotion of Security, Manuel Amarila, delivered a detailed presentation on the European Union and its recent expansion, as well as its proposed further expansion and the all important ‘Turkey question’.

This day really got me thinking about what it means to be a European Citizen. For a start, the EU’s motto is ‘United in Diversity’, a motto I can fully relate to working for ICLS in Leicester. It helped me start to overcome a few of my prejudices. Like many Brits, I had not considered myslef a European, mainly because of media influences and our ‘island mentality’. However, after speaking with my new friends from Rotterdam, Berlin and Rome, I realised that Europe is a strong coaltition that can exert pressure (for better of worse*) when engaged in international negotiations. It seems to me that this is the best reason to remain and become more engaged in the EU, because as a democratic institution we can encourage it to use its power in a globally responsible way. It was exciting to discover that between the group of participants at the ICLS European gathering we live in six different European Parliamentary constituencies, which amounts to dozens of MEPs. What an impact we could have if collectively we wrote to all those MEPs, referring each to the other and acting as a strong network across Europe. Watch this space – the plans are developing for bilateral lobbying! The EU can make laws that all countries in the EU must stick to. This sometimes can be troublesome, as in the issue of how Britain weighs food to sell – regional customs must be taken into account – but for some issues that must be tackled, like carbon emissions, making laws which a huge number of people must abide by can make a very big difference. The EU can also act as a buffer zone that enables individuals, communities and collections of communitities (countries) to effectively deal with a larger-scale, more complex world that is the result of globalisation.

Whilst a recent edition of BBC Radio 4′s The Now Show suggested that the best thing about the EU is the English Channel, we must also remember that the English Channel is only 30 miles wide at its narrowest point, has only been seperating England and France for 10,000 years, and most ‘indigineous’ Brits are derived from European immigrants, be they Romans, Vikings, Saxons, Celts or Normans.

*When negotiating trade deals, for example, the EU can exert pressure on countries to improve their human rights records, but on the other hand, the protectionist Common Agricultural Policy has meant that excess government subsidised chickens and tomatoes swamped the markets of Ghana in 2005 and put many Ghanaian farmers out of business as they could not compete with the low, low prices.

I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the first ICLS European gathering, held at Scargill House in Noth Yorkshire, as part of the European Union’s Year of Intercultural Dialogue. There were representatives from Rome, Rotterdam, Berlin, Bradford, and Walsall, as well as Leicester.

The first day (Monday) was opened by Geze Tessenyi, the Preseident of ICLS, based in Rome. We heard brief summaries from each of the ICLS groups present.

The 4 days were characterised by much in-depth conversation ranging from explanations of our beliefs and religious backgrounds, to current political concerns and strategies to affect change. The beautiful surroundings of Scargill and the harmonious community living there were a reminder of the potential of intercultural dialogue and why it is so important, just as the RAF fighter jets and bombers practising their low flting reminded us of the difficulties faced in the 21st century.

Last night at the St Philip’s Centre a People’s Commission on asylum was hosted by Leicester ICLS. Conclusions drawn from 90 minutes of discussion will be fed into a national survey on asylum that the Independent Asylum Commission are compiling in order to review the UK asylum system and make recommendations to the government.

The evening commenced with a thought experiment which placed us in a scenario that allowed us to think more objectively about the asylum system. This also helped us to approach the next activities with a greater degree of thoughtfulness and objectivity.

One of the participants commented at the end that he was surprised there wasn’t more disagreement. We were asked to agree or disagree with 8 statements and pictured are the outcomes – the statements we agreed with, some of them slightly ammended. I think it shows that whilst we can be placed at different points on a political spectrum, and we all have a different attitude to authority, we all accept Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (a bright pink copy from Amnesty International adorns the office wall): ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’, and Article 14: ‘Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution’. One participant asked the question ‘where would we go?’

The final task was to talk about language – which word do we want to use to describe asylum seekers? We unanimously agreed that the phrase ‘sanctuary seeker’ had a far greater resonance with the protection the UK could offer from the horrors of some of the World’s worst regimes and warzones. For me, the word sanctuary slides in beside the City of Sanctuary movement and conjures up images of the sanctuary of a church, the space near the alter, somewhere sacred.

In February I spent a week away from the office travelling around the Midlands in an attempt to find a suitable venue for the next two ICLS residential courses. ICLS has been held at Hothorpe Hall in the past. It’s a lovely place in a rural setting. When I was there in January 2007 it snowed and we made a snow penguin. However, I thought it might be time for a change so I visited the Islamic Foundation, Launde Abbey and Cliff College. All are suitable but I couldn’t resist the beautiful setting of Cliff College in the Peak District National Park, so I’ve booked the next two courses there. They will be on:

• Monday 16th June 2008 to Friday 20th June 2008

• Monday 8th September 2008 to Friday 12th September 2008

If you are interested in coming please get in touch. There’ll be an update soon to announce the ‘line-up’.