THE project
The goal
The goal of this project is to strengthen the agency of women, who are reentering the labour force after years of being stay-home mothers. While we cannot change the systemic failures and problems of the labour market, by strengthening women’s control about their career and personal goals and personal competencies, as well as assist them in finding a better approach to work-balance harmony, we would like to empower them for a more conscious career planning.
The methodology
There are already available methodologies developed for other fields of career and life coaching, which can be adapted to this target group: these are Symbolwork, Folk Tale Work (“meseterápia”), and also Playwork, which is not a coaching tool, but can help in the work-life harmony area. While Folk Tale Work is available in Hungary, and Symbolwork in Austria, Playwork trainings are only available for teachers at this point in our countries, but widely known and recognised in the United Kingdom. Through these project we would make them all usable in all three countries, transferred and adapted to local needs and environment. We also work into combining of these methods to reach synergy and higher impact.
Symbolwork is a coaching and therapy method used for social and youth work, developed by the German psychologist, Wilfried Schneider. Folk tale work, or folk tale therapy is a Hungarian innovation developed by Ildikó Boldizsár, and this is a great tool for mobilizing existing internal resources.
Playwork is an English method adapted here to nurture the home environment by offering the necessary support and guidance on how to support a playful parenthood with the benefits of free play, a valuable, enriching activity.
Target groups
The direct target group of the training course are counsellors, trainers, social workers working with women who face reentering the employment field. The materials we will develop as part of this project will support those working with women who are returning to work after a break due to parenting. These women will also become indirect target groups for these materials, including women with lesser opportunities, such as immigrant, refugee, or minority women.
Combining the different methods of the project into a common whole will help to improve their competences in supporting women returning to work. This leads to improved quality and higher success rates of counselling processes.