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.