Women in Blue Leadership Program

WOMEN IN BLUE LEADERSHIP PROGRAM

Turkey lacked an institution that provided fishers with a life-long education and training program. Within the context of life-long learning, there was a need for an education program that was gender-sensitive and aimed at “creating opportunities in learning, ensuring personal development, actualizing social integration, and economical development.”

As Women in Fisheries Society, we took action with this goal in mind. We developed a program called “Women in Blue Leadership Programme” with the aim of strengthening the women working in the marine sector, and their leadership and entrepreneurship skills.

The program is designed according to the needs of Turkish women who are employed in the marine and inland fisheries sector, and has the following qualities:

Instead of the social approach that regards women as “social services beneficiaries” and focuses on their “shortcomings,” we adopt an empowering approach that focuses on their leadership skills and strength to motivate them to take action for their own priorities and/or needs.
With this program tailored for women fishers, we are striving for providing women with the knowledge, skills, and motivation necessary to organize around their needs and for developing their occupational initiative capacities for more permanent policies.
We conduct these trainings not with a classical education approach but through “practice-based learning.”

CONTENT:

The practice-based learning program consists of three parts that are completed in four months.

Training of trainers
Team meetings
Summit

1. Episode - Training of Trainers

In these trainer trainings, women employed in the marine sectors in different cities participate.

Participant women are provided with the opportunity to develop their occupational and personal leadership skills with the help of our workshops throughout the training. They don’t just get information, they learn by doing.

They are provided with the information and experience on critical issues like correct leadership, team awareness, effective communication, gender, and chairing a meeting in this 3-4 days of training. They participate in the training interactively and experience each issue.

Trainer Training consists of five parts.

Part: The occupational needs, solidarity, gender, the position of women in social life, and occupational and women’s rights are discussed.
Part: The correct leadership, the new leadership concept, team awareness, creating a shared vision, and taking action toward the vision are practiced.
Part: By focusing on knowledge and skills of communication, women participate in the workshops and awareness-raising practices on gaining perspective towards goals, developing alternative solutions, and working together to become stronger.
Part: They are provided with workshops on developing an action plan, determining shared goals, identifying occupational problems, identifying solutions, organized practices, and creating resources.
Part: The whole training practice process, the knowledge gained, and the ways to share this knowledge with other women are discussed. Personal, occupational, and social plans towards a better future are shared.

As a result of this training, each participant receives the title of “Team Leader” and the curriculum of the training is handed to the team leaders.

2. Episode - Team Meetings

When the team leader women turn back to their hometown, they create a team of the women living in the same area and implement the training they received from the Women in Fisheries Society.

Thereby, while they reinforce and internalize the knowledge they gained in the training, they also enable other women to gain or develop the same skills.

This training process consists of 8 meetings in which the curriculum contents are shared in a meeting of two hours once a week.

The topic of these meetings are as follows:

General information about the training
The women’s position in society
What is leadership? How can it be developed?
Knowing ourselves and others
Team awareness
Creating a shared vision/goal
Taking action towards the shared goal
Becoming leader women

3. Episode - Summit

After these meetings are completed, all teams along with their team leaders are invited to a yearly event, called Women in Blue Summit .

These summits consist of new sessions, workshops, and activities on occupational and personal women empowerment. The contents of these summits are determined by WFS according to the needs of participants.

In this summit, each team shares the knowledge and experience they gained or developed. During these sessions, they share the problems they faced and possible solutions to these problems, along with their personal thoughts and feelings.

**Note: WFS postponed all summit activities due to Covid-19.

BENEFITS

Women in Blue Leadership Programme;

Improves the solidarity of women in their working environments.
Encourages women to collaborate, combine powers, and organize for their shared needs and goals.
Improves communication among women and provides opportunities for sharing experiences.
Identifies the common problems experienced in the local areas and encourages creating solutions.
Plays a key role in the development of the local region by creating social and economical values.

PRINCIPLES

Women in Blue Leadership Programme is based on the following principles;

Inclusion
Transparency
Accountability
Participation
Respect for diversity
Sharing the perspective of an independent women movement

Kadın Balıkçılar Derneği

Bizi Takip Edin

Güzeltepe Mah.
Abidin Daver Sok. 7/1

Çankaya – Ankara

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