Training '' Community Engagement in Higher Education''

On July 1-3, a training session titled ''Community Engagement in Higher Education'' was held at Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani University, attended by the university's academic and administrative staff and students.

The training was conducted within the framework of the Erasmus+ KA2 CBHE institutional development project "Enhancing Capacities for Sustainable Community Engagement: Cases for Georgia and Sierra Leone – ENHANCE GSL," and aimed to share the knowledge gained through the project with SabaUni staff. Community engagement activities have been carried out in various forms at Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani University for years, though all of them have been extracurricular events organized by individuals. As a result of the ENHANCE GSL project, a guidebook was developed focusing on the integration and implementation of community engagement activities in higher education. In addition to theoretical material, the guidebook includes direct experiences and best-practice examples from foreign colleagues.

The first part of the training was devoted to introducing the concept of community engagement and its necessity in higher education, where participants received information about the project and the guidebook developed within its framework. They also learned about the various forms and types of community engagement activities. The next part of the training focused on practical and group work, where participants first discussed the challenges facing society and then developed projects to address these problems. Among the main challenges listed by participants were the following issues: human rights, media literacy, sustainable development and ecology, inclusivity and neurodiversity, and others. Participants also discussed the forms and criteria for assessment in cases where community engagement activities are integrated into the syllabus.

Natalia Mchedlishvili, an affiliated assistant professor at SabaUni's Faculty of Social Sciences, was invited to the training; she had incorporated community engagement activities into her Clinical Psychology course on a trial basis during the spring semester. Natalia Mchedlishvili shared her own experience with the training participants and noted that students engaged in the project with great interest and worked enthusiastically in groups on raising awareness about mental health (creating wall newspapers, handmade brochures, video clips, and more).

The training was led by participants in the ENHANCE GSL project: SabaUni Vice-Rector Professor Dimitry Gegenava, Head of the Anti-Discrimination Center and Associate Professor Tsisia Okropiridze, and International Relations Manager Shorena Parunashvili. This training was preceded by a Training of Trainers held at Matej Bel University in Slovakia, led by ENHANCE GSL project experts from universities in Slovakia and Croatia.