The House Luz da Colina, affiliated to the Fraternidade – International Humanitarian Federation, held the workshop ” Intercultural Dialog and Non-violent Communication”, on June 25th, presented by Diogo Alvim, a Biology teacher, who has been researching restorative practices for 10 years from the principles of non-violency in school context. He is an Educator of the Social Enterprise Ecohabitare, with the focus on Educational Reconfiguration, and he teaches at Flor do Ipê School in Três Corações, Minas Gerais (Brazil).

The workshop proposal was born from a partnership between Casa Luz da Colina and the Federal University of Alfenas (UNIFAL). Since January 2018, Professor Bruno Eduardo Freitas Honorato, of the Institute of Applied Social Sciences of UNIFAL, and students of the management course have developed in Casa Luz da Colina Research and extension activities linked to the project “(Per) Organizational courses: from knowledge of  the experience to experience of the knowledge  in the management of communities, associations and ecotowns “.

During this period, the students held several visits to Casa Luz da Colina in order to submerge themselves in the life of the community and to make a survey of the main needs of the site regarding the management processes. After interviews with the coordinators of each sector and the analyses were carried out, it was verified the need to improve the quality of communication in the community, specially to address the great cultural diversity.

In order to perform an intervention that offered a practical tool to assist in interpersonal relations and organization of Casa Luz da Colina, a workshop was held with the participation of about 50 people, including the leaders of the different sectors of the  Luz da Colina House (Nucleus)  and the Luz-Figueira Community.

With very rich experiences and theoretical discussions, the workshop was set up as an area of promising and relevant exchanges for the establishment of interpersonal relations and community management, based on assertive, neutral and clear communication, avoiding unnecessary conflicts and misunderstandings.

The group’s involvement and satisfaction was very relevant and the possibility of sharing this knowledge with other sectors of the community is already being studied, as well as deepening discussions on intercultural dialog and non-violent communication in constant search for the construction of a more careful and affective way of group life.

Diálogo intercultura e Comunicação Não-Violenta