Participative Workshop for key anti-trafficking stakeholders in the Veneto Region (Italy)

The cooperative “Equality” and “Azalea” have organized three participative workshops for the operators of N.A.Ve. Project (Network Anti-trafficking of Veneto Region) on 4^th October 2019 at the structure of Discepole del Vangelo in Castelfranco Veneto (TV) and on 3^rd December 2019 at Banca Etica in Padova.

The workshops have reached high level of participation among operators and were successful in engaging experts in the sector. Professionals gave guidance to the workshop in the formative days, allowing for an environment of trust and openness. The first two workshops were conducted by professor Ennio Ripamonti, psychosociologist at the University of Milan – Bicocca and University of Sacro Cuore of Milan; the third workshop was conducted by professor Natale Losi, director of ethno-systemic-narrative school of Rome. The technique used in the participative workshops was the case study technique. The case study technique allows to deepen the stories told by operators and it was useful to provide an overview of the situation, avoiding unilateral visions. It is also useful to provide real-life examples, making the experience more relatable to workers in the sector.

In the first two workshops five N.A.Ve. operators used a case from their work experience where they found difficulties or that was successfully concluded. Afterwards, the participants split into groups and the single stories were explained and analysed in detail. In addition, the groups shared the choices made (or not made) and their outcome. Together, the operators and participants reflected on how these stories can lead to transferable and generalizable teaching to other phases of the project. After that what was shared in the single groups was reported to the assembly.

In the third workshop operators reported experiences of people taken in charge by the project. The stories were put into action and acted out: the conductor chose operators to interpreted the different actors present in the stories told. In this way the operators were able to get involved and find themselves in the situation of the main characters of these real stories.

These days made for a were intense and interesting experience for the operators of the NAVe project. It was an useful and fruitful moment to stop and think about the work done, to share it with fellows experts, and to learn from it. Unfortunately, in everyday life there is often no way to take time to think and stop on individual situation. These workshops gave this valuable opportunity to the NAVe project operators. What is more, reporting a story allowed for operators to look at their own stories from another point of view, and to reflect about them in a detached way. The collaboration among experts in the sector created a positive environment of trust and openness that contributed to the success of these workshops.