Dive in. Foundations of conflict transformation at the interpersonal level

What if conflict wasn’t a problem to solve, but a language to understand? This project invites you to decode the hidden messages within tension and disagreement, finding paths that lead not just to resolution, but to transformation. By engaging with the roots of conflict and exploring its role in our lives and communities, we’ll explore how it can be a catalyst for creativity, growth, and resilience. This isn’t about avoiding difficulty, it’s about diving into it and reimagining the possibilities on the other side. In a world marked by growing complexity, the need for conflict transformation has never been more urgent. This project invites participants to take a step back, return to the fundamentals, and rediscover the power of dialogue and understanding. Are you ready to shape a new narrative?

Aim: To equip 25 youth workers, youth leaders and activists with tools to transform conflicts into opportunities for dialogue and growth, fostering collaboration and building inclusive communities capable of addressing challenges.

Objectives

- To gain a better understanding of the concepts of Peace, diverse forms of violence, conflict, non-violence and culture of peace.

- To understand the importance of nonviolent conflict transformation, the variety of strategies to approach conflict and its links to the context of human rights.

- To empower participants to participate and build healthy and peaceful communities and interpersonal relations.

- To develop skills in emotional literacy and non-violent communication.

- To map and analyse the conflicts affecting the participants in their local context.

- To facilitate the process of designing at least 6 follow-up activities aiming to transform local conflicts by using conflict transformation tools.

- To create a recommendations document including the framework of competencies for youth leaders to build sustainable communities and teams.

Profile of participants

- Youth workers, leaders, and activists interested in conflict transformation and non-violent communication.

- People that enjoy being in the nature. We will be in a venue in Guriezo, Cantabria!

- Ready to embrace community living, which includes actively collaborating with the group on daily household and cleaning tasks in our shared accommodation.

- Eager to explore and apply the principles of peace, human rights, and community-building.

- Committed to engaging in self-reflection, collaborative learning, and sharing their experiences.

- Willing to challenge traditional approaches to conflict and explore creative solutions.

- Able to commit to the full duration of the training, including travel.

- Open to diverse perspectives and ready to contribute to a supportive, inclusive environment.

How do we work?

The training course will be based on the principles of non-formal education: it will have a planned programme of personal and social education for young people designed to improve a range of skills and competencies, outside the formal educational curriculum.

We will implement the essential elements of non-formal education, such as the education being voluntary, organized with educational objectives, participatory and learner-centred, about learning life skills and preparing for active citizenship, based on involving both individual and group learning with a collective approach, holistic and process-oriented, as well as based on experience and action (we will plan the follow-up activities) and starts from the needs of the participants.

Costs

Education is a right that we have as human beings, even if sometimes we have to pay for it. This is why we are happy and grateful to tell you that this training is for FREE and everything is covered by Erasmus +

We will be able to reimburse you for your travel to Cantabria with a limits covered by Erasmus+

Libre-pensadores de la Sierra de Madrid (LPS) is a network of young people with the aim of promoting Human Rights Education, democratic advocacy for youth policies and inclusion and cooperation.

HOW TO APPLY

The deadline is the 15th of October 2026