Enhancing the Communication Skills for Professionals Engaged in Child Protection System at Municipal Level

Members of the Municipal Management Boards from Tešanj, Uskoplje, Posušje, Velika Kladuša, Kupres, Gacko, Derventa, Čelinac, Mrkonjić Grad, Prnjavor, and Brčko District participated in two communication workshops held in April 2012 within the EU funded projekat “Enhancing the Social Protection and Inclusion System for Children in (SPIS)”.

In addition, members of the municipalities had an opportunity to learn more about the strategic communication, communication for development, social marketing as well as public relations and relations with media, on the workshop organised by the NGO Infohouse in Sarajevo and Laktaši.

More than fifty participants had an opportunity to learn from TV anchor Aleksandar Hršum, Communication expert Ševko Bajić and Nineta Popović from UNICEF, how to manage a campaign, what is the difference between an informative campaign and a campaign intended to change a pattern of behavior, what is PR and why is it important, the importance of nonverbal communication, how to design good printed materials, how one should look like, speak and behave in TV shows, and how to choose the best wording for a press release.

The participants also had an opportunity to ask a famous TV personality practical questions such as how to “pack” information to make it interesting for the audience, what they can request from journalists and media and vice versa, and how to prepare a statement. Practical exercises with the lecturers enabled the participants to overcome the fear of public appearance in TV shows and of an open dialogue. 

The participants of the training agreed that this way of improving the communication skills was necessary and highly beneficial for every professional employed in the social protection sector.

The Project “Enhancing the Social Protection and Inclusion System for Children in BiH” is a joint project of the EU and UNICEF. The European Union has been financing this project since 2008 with an amount of Euro 4,1 million from the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA). The Project aims at improving the system which will secure adequate social welfare policies and social protection and inclusion of children and their parents.

Europa.ba