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CoachActivism 2017 offers pro-bono sessions to volunteers working with refugees

Are you currently a volunteer working with refugees in Greece or Portugal? Do you want to know how to prevent burn-out, develop professional skills and  process with work efficiency? For the second year volunteers and front line workers working with refugees have the opportunity to receive pro-bono support from professional coaches, through the CoachActivism project.

CoachActivism project is an initiative of the coaching community in response to the global refugee crisis.

Professional coaches provide pro-bono support to volunteers who work with refugees in Greece and elsewhere.

The project was launched in 2016 in Greece and Canada. During the first year, the coaches from these two countries worked with over 40 coachees (front-line workers and volunteers involved in the global refugee crisis) providing them 240 hours of free coaching support.

This second year, coaches, trainers and supervisors come from around the World: Greece, Portugal, Canada, South Africa, UK, USA, Italy, Netherlands, Lebanon, China and Mozambique.

Coaching is offered in Greek, English and Portuguese

The sessions can take place in person or via Skype.

Coach Activism has free places for a number of upcoming sessions scheduled to start on July 10th 2017.

The support provided is aiming to increase resilience and self-care and to support the coachees in the organization, coordination and facilitation of their work.

The first year the coachees benefited in a variety of areas with most common: self-care, work-life balance, stress management, leadership development, work efficiency, time management, and resilience.

Many coachees said one of the motives to participate in the CoachActivism project and take advantage of the consulting was

to protect myself from a burnout and to offer my services in the best way I could to both the refugees and my team.”

We contacted Katerina Kanelidou and Maeve O’Byrne from the leadership team.

We asked them why this initiative and what makes them keep going.

Our initiative started with the shared belief that coaching should play an active role in the challenges the world is facing. The refugee crisis is one of these challenges. Unwilling to stay passive viewers of the humanitarian crisis, we continue joining forces to our common vision: a project/action that will provide those involved with the refugee crisis with high level coaching and become a model for coaching and support in humanitarian crisis globally”, says Katerina Kanelidou, MA PCC, Leadership Coach, Greece.

This is a project that touches my soul, and where I know I can contribute.  The plight of refugees has disappeared off the front pages of the World’s newspapers and yet the challenge of people fleeing their homelands continue.  The work we do with workers and volunteers to build resilience while continue to do this incredibly difficult work helps them in easing the pain of those who have lost everything”, adds Maeve O’Byrne, MA ACC, Executive Coach, Canada.

Why should the volunteers participate? The answer comes from Norman Hering who participated in CoachActivism in Athens last year.

As a psychologist, I know only too well the importance of support when working with a traumatized population. My volunteer work in Athens quickly showed me the toll this work was taking on me with difficulty sleeping, high levels of stress and confused eating patterns. I had also spoken with a number of volunteers who had expressed similar symptoms to me. 

Once I filled out the application form, setting up an appointment with my coach was very easy. The coaching experience was very helpful in sorting through all the multitude of thoughts and feelings that came up on a daily basis. My coach was excellent and very professional.” – Norman Hering, USA

If you are interested to take part in CoachActivism sessions or just want more information, you can contact Katerina Kanelidou :

email: [email protected]  mobile: +306977990860

Registration has started.

The sooner you make a booking, the better.

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