Welcome to the Training for Transformation’s Website

What is Training for Transformation?

Training for Transformation is an approach to transformative community development that was developed in Kenya in the 1970’s and has continued to expand and deepen until now. Six different areas of study contribute to the effectiveness of this methodology:

• Understanding the deep psychological blocks in people who have been traumatized by poverty and injustice (as understood by Fanon and many others) and enabling the building of trust among people of various interests, cultures and backgrounds;
• Developing critical consciousness and creativity to enable individuals and communities to ‘read their reality and write their own history’ as initially developed by Paulo Freire in Brazil;
• Undertaking social-economic analysis to enable civil society organisations to understand the functioning of society at all levels (economic, social, psychological and cultural) and enable them to tackle social and environmental injustice through social movements;
• Using participatory methodologies based on transformative learning, leadership skills, group dynamics and individual transformation;
• Developing forms of organisational development that encourage creativity, effectiveness and responsibility;
• Establishing links between culture and spirituality to encourage and enhance long-term commitment towards justice & environmental sustainability.

Where can Training for Transformation be found today?

The originators of this work, Anne Hope and Sally Timmel, captured some of their methods in four volumes called Training for Transformation: A handbook for community workers. Thanks to these manuals and through the effort of countless activists and educators who were inspired by Sally’s and Anne’s work in Africa, this integrated approach has spread to dozens of countries across the world and has been the foundation block of countless community-based projects and training programmes.

Following an international meeting of Training for Transformation practitioners organized by Partners in Dublin in 2000 and responding to a call to refresh activists’ understanding and practical skills to raise consciousness, the Cape Town Grail has developed an ambitious advanced training of trainers programme at their Kleinmond Centre. The programme has now been running for 5 years and has trained more than 200 (?) women’s grassroots activists, mainly from the South (Asia, African and Latin America). Its main purpose is to develop a new level of leadership and to enable practitioners and organisations to establish bridges with local and global social movements.

Why this website & what does it contain?

Although Training for Transformation originated more than 40 years ago, it still presents a resolutely fresh approach to community development, empowerment and the understanding of the root causes of poverty, injustice and environmental destruction. As such, it has something important to offer to the growing movement of practitioners, community development workers, academics and ordinary citizens across the world who are deeply concerned with the state of the world and are engaged in campaigns, education, grassroots projects and various other forms of activism.

This website aims to share the precious knowledge, tools and processes of change developed by Training for Transformation practitioners over 40 years of experience. It also aims to give directions as to where you might encounter training programmes and projects rooted in the Training for Transformation approach. Finally, it aims to better connect the thousands of individuals who are part of the movement for change and would welcome an opportunity to connect, get re-energised and deepen their practice.

In this website, you’ll find: