The study examines a training program aimed at equipping coordinators and managers of childcare and protection services working with families in a vulnerable situation in a region of central-northern Italy with the skills to design and deliver workshops aimed at improving the quality of working life (Stamm, 1999; Figley, 1993). This program, which lasted from January to September 2022, was part of a broader training and research initiative following a critical-emancipatory paradigm CEP (Denzin, Lincoln, 2023) which aims to enable service coordinators to independently design and facilitate workshops (adaptable in terms of group size, methodology and scheduling) being supported by university researchers by the means of a mentoring path. The data collected show: 1) a preference for more emotionally neutral topics (self-evaluation and self-care strategies); 2) some difficulties expressed by the coordinators in taking on this task and their request for an external facilitator; 3) both desires and difficulties expressed by the operators in dealing with their own emotions. The aim of the paper is to explore and reflect on the participants' perspectives rather than to explain them: the idea is that, in addition to what the literature says about better training design from a theoretical point of view, as educators we also need to understand what could have been an effective training path for the people working with vulnerable families we encounter, because giving them a voice was the only way to make them see that they were co-designers of the training (Giroux, 2020).

Authors:
Natascia Bobbo, University of Padova, Italy
Marco Ius, University of Trieste, Italy

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Ius Is associate professor in education and social pedagogy. He is member of the scientific group coordinating the Italian national programma P.I.P.P.I. addressed to children and families living in a vulnerable situation.

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