Grant Partners learn from others’ response to change

Our Grant Partners’ Workshop once again proved to be a brilliant opportunity to learn from each other and hear about successful ways charities have responded to change, as well as discussing ongoing challenges.  

We heard from keynote speaker, Lara McIvor, Executive Director of Seenaryo, on Innovating through instability: Seenaryo’s teacher training for refugee communities in Lebanon & Jordan. 

 They offer an app for teacher training for refugee communities and have trained 4,000 teachers since 2018, but had to adapt to problems including the impact of military action after the 7 October attacks on south Lebanon, which forced the closure of 30 public schools.  

Lara said their response relied on “different routes to reach people, expanding our target group to include Palestinian refugees. We had I Learn from Home resources people could use more… We let go of the idea of the perfect resource.” 

When some teachers reached saturation point they changed from group coaching to an opt-in model of one-to-one coaching, as well as peer learning and exchange. Among her conclusions were the value of bringing in the Ministry in Jordan as technical consultant to help progress in Syrian refugee camps there. 

The discussion which followed showed that key issues came up repeatedly as changes to navigate: staff, communications, money and shifting power. 

In the afternoon sessions grant partners discussed what to do when projects don’t go to plan; change from within; and adapting to shifting environments. You can see Lara McIvor’s presentation and notes from our afternoon discussions on our Educational Opportunity Members’ Forum here. 

Remember you can also message people via the People Directory on the Forum if, for example, you would like to follow up on discussions after the event.