INPRHU, the Institute for Human Promotion, has been applying the ICDP methodology for several years, by working in a group and individualized way, in different fields, such as in psychological care, self-help groups, families, social actors, training with teachers. The project run by INPRHU is called Casa Entre Nosotras. They have also been disseminating the content of the ICDP program through the radio, which enabled them to reach out to more people in the general population.
Update from INPRHU, April 2024:
Session with families at the Pedro Joaquín Chamorro School
A total of 78 families were attended in the Pedro Joaquín Chamorro school, who participated in the ICDP group sessions. In most families, patterns of negative behaviors that have been learned since their childhood were evidenced and from their lived experiences they shared stories of the punishments they obtained from their parents. Sharing personal stories in warm environment allowed each participant to recognize the importance of being different with their own sons and daughters. They appreciated the importance of positive guidance that teaches children to achieve the goal of their activity step by step. The ICDP course encouraged participant families to interact positively with their children, and all expressed that they now involve their children in conversations by listening to their opinions, and making shared decisions. Participants emphasized how they observed their children gradually change as result of being listened to and how they are now maintaining a better family coexistence. The group bonded during the course and showed initiative through active participation. Attendees expressed that they learned to become more tolerant, understanding and how to give better attention to their children. They said they became aware and able to create better family spaces for their children to grow up in, and they even managed to help other parents at the school to apply ICDP guidelines in their homes.
Radio Programs
The ICDP eight guidelines of positive interactions were shared through the radio program “Our Voices for Change”. The program inspires listeners to put into practice good quality interaction and thus enhance their parenting skills. International trainer Monica Anderson, who visited the team at INPRHU in the autumn 2023, had an opportunity to participate in the radio program by sharing her experience of training foster families in ICDP, in her native Sweden.
Teacher Training at Facilitator Level
A total of 10 teacher training meetings were facilitated, distributed in two groups of 30 participants. Each group received 5 training sessions in person over approximately three hours. It was possible to achieve the objective of ICDP training and sensitizing of a total of 52 teachers, 47 women and 5 men. Everyone was invited to show their short video recordings which were made earlier and through which they evidenced what they had learned through the whole process of training, and in particular, they were aiming to illustrate how they put into practice the three ICDP dialogues: emotional, comprehension and regulative. A plan was initially agreed, with established timelines for using the ICDP interactive, participatory, and reflective methodology, to strengthen the teachers as people, first of all, and then to spread the program further by transferring it to the groups with which the teachers work. This process was completed with the delivery of certificates to the teachers of six selected schools, including Montessori, Nueva Amanecer, Pueblos Unidos, Nora Astorga, Pedro Joaquín and San Martín de la Ciudad de Ocotal. They are now trained and qualified to replicate the ICDP program by working with their groups of students and parents. They have all received relevant ICDP material which will allow them to work with their target groups, and this was delivered to Directors of each Educational Center who participated in the training process.
New training of social actors
A new group of future facilitators was trained by Monica Anderson together with ICDP facilitators linked to INPRHU. Training was given to new members of staff, as well as social actors from outside, including community workers, preschool teachers and municipal councilors. The overall aim is to spread ICDP more widely.. The training process was completed with the delivery of certificates and accrediting 18 participants as facilitators of the ICDP methodology. They had fulfilled all their self-training and other required tasks, prior certification. Participants made a commitment to continue taking up what they have learned and continue disseminating the ICDP work to empower more families and help them overcome negative behaviors that have been learned during their difficult childhoods.
Difficulties
Teachers have little time to replicate what they have already learned. Most families live in peripheral neighborhoods and several times the ICDP facilitators did not have transportation to these vulnerable and dangerous places. Occasionally some of the parents who participate in the ICDP course have to spend all day working away from their homes and they leave their children with other caregivers, so when facilitators visit their homes they do not find the parents but their neighbours who are babysitting.
Plans for the year:
This year, in 2024, the teachers who participated in the training process are now replicating the learning they obtained during the training in 2023 by working with parent groups and in schools. They are receiving support and being supervised by the ICDP team at INPRHU.
On the other hand, the ICDP facilitators at INPRHU are strongly committed to replicating the ICDP program in all the different areas of their work, with family groups, with individual families, with children and adolescents, and with the local community. They aim to continue to strengthen their own skills and knowledge as professionals working with the ICDP program..