The workshop on Addressing the Impact and Trauma of Migration  hosted by LCC International University’s  peace Center for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation was co-facilitated by  a guest expert from Ukraine, Anna Dovbyk (who  presently works with Dialogue in Action in Ukrainian grassroot communities) along with  Naomi Enns the Director of the peace center.

Over two and a half days students and staff  from over eight countries engaged with how the migration journey impacts personal and community life. Moreover, we explored healing pathways that help migrants meet their needs and address challenges through different phases of the migration journey.  The workshop was designed to provide a foundational understanding of trauma and its effects, with a particular focus on practical tools and methods for building resilience as a core component of the healing process. Salome Noniashvili, a Georgian International Relations student notes “ Going straight to the root of the problem helps us understand how to find the right solutions.  This training is especially important for universities like LCC where a large part of the community consists of migrants who need support in learning how to navigate their life in a new environment.” 

The training was facilitated in a non-formal educational approach and featured resiliency building strategy components such as sharing life stories, group singing, listening circles, and bringing awareness on the acting-in and acting-out cycles of violent behaviors, including strategies for breaking free. The key practices integrated throughout the workshop were storytelling (for self-reflection and sense-making) and compassionate listening. The latter invites the listener to be attentive to the core and strength of the storyteller’s experience and give that affirmation back to them. As Sofya Detkina, a 4th year student remarked  after the training “ This type of training is useful because it builds awareness about the individuals who surround us: people who were displaced or migrated. It forces you to walk outside of your comfort zone, look at people with more love and compassion, and be inquisitive about your own background and stories traveled in your family” .   

The end of each day finished with a peacebuilding listening circle process, or integrated elements of it.  Anna Dovbyk describes this as “deep and powerful dialogue practice for building safety and community support. In this space, we shared our personal strategies for building resilience and strengthening the pillars that help us navigate life's difficulties.”

The participants were highly curious about the topic, eager to engage, reflect, and share. Likewise, for those already working with migrants in various capacities, they reinforced their own knowledge in new ways.   As a peace center, we believe as Anna does that “this workshop on awareness of the trauma of migration, together with resiliency-building strategies, is crucially important in educational settings like LCC International University. This is a context where both students and staff are either facing the migration experience themselves or accompanying others who are living through it. The participatory methodology of the workshop allowed participants to gain an embodied learning experience regarding resilience-building, mental well-being strategies, and trauma awareness” . As a Ukrainian IRD second year student shares “ The workshop increased my self-awareness and understanding of other migrants, the way I can help them even by having a simple conversation. It is important to acknowledge the fact that migration is not a simple movement, it is a huge process full of emotional complications.” While a  Psychology major student reflected , “I came expecting dry theory, but it exceeded my expectations. I left not just with knowledge, but with a small transformation inside me and new perspectives that I can carry forward. “

 Both facilitators recognize and  believe as Anna Dovbyk puts it “ that creating these spaces on a campus setting, where participants can process such a difficult topic, empowers them, bringing strength and transformation. This positive personal change, in turn, has potential to impact the circles around them and the campus community as a whole.