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====== ABOUT US ======

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===== VIA BRACHY=====
{{:the_box:via-brachy-logo.jpg?nolink&160 |}}Via Brachy is a French non-profit organization established at Toulouse, Occitanie.\\
Since 1998, we aim at **empowering people**, enhancing **social and ecological projects** run by citizens and fostering **cultural dialogue** and **knowledge exchange** between people and organizations from various backgrounds. We promote **eco-friendly living** and **social and collaborative economy** and advocate for **social change** and **social and ecological transition**.
We organize mobility projects and non-formal educational activities in order to **tackle prejudices**, encourage **social dialogue** and help people **find their way** in society.\\
We believe that **traveling opens** people’s minds to new realities and encourages them to share ideas, knowledge and experiences.\\

In practice:\\
  * we offer **learning opportunities** to people as catalysts for personal transformation and social change, either by organizing our own learning mobility projects (youth exchanges, seminars, training courses) in South-West France, nor by partnering with other social organizations in Europe;
  * we **support our partners’ initiatives** in the village of Yayeme in Senegal (development of eco-friendly income-generating activities);
  * we organize **local trainings**, **workshops** and **public events** in order to share what we learnt and to address social and ecological issues with people from various background.

Discover our [[http://www.viabrachy.org/|website]] !\\
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===== OUR APPROACH =====

Since 2015, our training courses take place in rural cottages near Gaillac (Tarn, France), which creates the proper atmosphere for a good learning experience and a deeper connection between the participants. \\

Each training course gathers around 30 people coming from 3 to 9 different EU countries.\\

For 7 to 10 days, they **share methods and tools**, learn from each other’s **experience** and benefit from the **inputs of skilled facilitators**, trainers, educators, social workers or activists. Together, they **define** the key concepts of the training course (power, leadership, cooperation, communication, supporting, critical thinking, Climate change, the Commons, etc.), **point out the processes** underlying the issues they are addressing, determine their **impacts** and acquire appropriate tools and methods to **overcome the issues** at stake, develop their projects and improve the quality of the services they provide to their target groups.\\

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We value **participants’ experience and knowledge**, and work as much as possible on **practical cases** in order for them to get gradually familiar with the concepts, methods and tools they are introduced to. 
We encourage them to take a step back from their own experience and **put into perspective** the knowledge acquired with regard to their work or needs. We invite them to take a **critical look** on the topics we address and to **question the way** we deal with them.\\

Whenever possible, we give the participants the opportunity to **experience the methods first-hand**, put their knowledge to the test and strengthen their ability to lead collaborative projects and their facilitation, communication or mediation skills. We assign them goals to achieve in order for them to **practice** the concepts, methods and tools on their own and to step up the intensity of the training course.\\

In addition to the working sessions scheduled during the day, we encourage the participants to take advantage of the time spent together to develop their skills in an **intercultural context**, share knowledge and deepen their **relationship** in a more intimate setting, and strengthen a set of **soft and social skills** that matter in collective work as well as in youth and social work.\\

We expect that our training courses **inspire** the participants and lead to an **increasing motivation** in what they do or intend to do, and hope they contribute to broadening their European network, this hopefully leading to future **cooperation**.\\

===== MAIN FACILITATORS =====

Nowadays, our training courses are led by a trio of facilitators. \\
Here are a few words on the people you might meet if you join us: \\

==== Cecilia Restrepo ====
Graduated in Sociology-Anthropology and Cultural Policies (Master's degree), Cecilia joined Via Brachy’s team in 2013 for the implementation of the first EU project of the organization. Since then, she has coordinated most of the learning mobility projects it has organized, both in Europe and in Senegal.

==== Caroline Ferrafiat ====
Graduated in Management of Social and International Solidarity Projects (Master's degree), Caroline coordinates Via Brachy’s EU projects since 2013, after several experiences as project manager in NGOs in France and South-East Asia. Along with Cecilia Restrepo, she is the organization’s swiss-knife. 

==== Clémence Bizon ====
Graduated in Animation and in Projects' design in the fields of social and collaborative economy (Master's degree), Clémence joined Via Brachy's team in 2020. Alongside with her team mates, she designs, prepares and implements Via Brachy's EU projects as well as local training courses, workshops and events. She brings to the team a wide range of skills in terms of intercultural facilitation, gamification and communication.

Since 2015, we also collaborated closely with: 

==== Jérôme de Daran ====
Graduated in Economics, Jérôme is the cofounder of La Volte, an atypical group of facilitators and social activists working in the fields of non formal education. Since 2012, he is supporting the development of social projects and organizations at both local, regional and EU scale. 

==== François Hirschowitz ====
Former street educator in charge of accompanying vulnerable people and social manager in an organization fostering labor market inclusion, François is currently working as a trainer/facilitator in group dynamics, conflict management and authentic communication.

==== Hélène Cavaignac ====
Trainer and facilitator in the non-formal education field since 2013, she supports individuals (and especially adults without degrees and people with fewer opportunities) in their learning and socio-professional journey and trains or monitors social organizations so that they can develop their creative potential, adopt participative methods and better adapt their action to their target groups.

==== Céline Julliat ====
Facilitator and consultant in the fields of collective intelligence, shared governance and non-formal education, Céline is supporting any kind of collectives (starting from social entrepreneurs and collectives involved in social or environnemental projects) in their attempt to work in a different way and experiment a more horizontal organization. Aside, she provides technical support, advices and consultancy for waste reduction and tackling food wasting.
  
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