Professional Sector: Training/Youth Work

First Name: Massimo

Last Name: Di Rienzo

Nationality: Italian

Email: m_dirienzo@hotmail.com

Organisation: Save the Children Itlay

A few words about me:

I have experience building large, focused on human rights education, children‘s rights-based, mainly developed through working as a national expert in human rights education at Save the Children Italy's Education Unit. I am also the co-founder of the Save the Children Italy school for educators, trainers, teachers and children‘s rights defenders, based in Rome, which is the final step of organization‘s capacity building process started in late 2007 within the same Unit.

During these four years of tight cooperation with Save the Children Head of Education Unit I have developed a wide range of projects, taking part in the process of planning, managing and evaluating the whole training line. My responsabilities included the development and management of the whole process, action-research, cooperation to final publications and promotion of the applied methodologies at a national and international level. I have been working closely with human rights professionals to help them provide the best possible training skills to human rights defending.

I have also been asked to develop new methodologies for innovative learning and teaching on human rights. Particularly through exploring the power of non-formal education I have come to training approaches which contained both emotional and cognitive processes. There are, infact, some pre-conditions to human rights defending, such as dignity, tolerance, respect for the others, critical thinking and standing up for one‘s rights that cannot be taught in formal ways, but need to be lived through experience and then nurtured by knowledge, from the earliest possible age.

Such an approach, which is founded on socio-constructivism theory, also reckons training participants (adults and children) as the best experts in human rights (if explored in real life and not in paper declarations). As a practitioner I have always considered human rights defending in context (social, political, cultural) and in time (childhood and adulthood), as an attitude, a living (and evolving) form of behaviour. Hints of this new approach can be found in Save the Children Italy publication line on Children‘s Rights Pedagogy and in the training line I have been working out for Save the Children Italy Education Unit in the last four years.

Furthermore, I am also an italian-based policy expert and capacity building trainer and consultant. My work relates to transparency in the public sector, communications, human relations and participation of people to social life. Part of my work at the moment involves promoting openness in italian public administration and in european funds spending. In this sector I also have academic experience at Rome University of Tor Vergata (2010-2011). After the Masters Degree in Law I was granted as a temporary research assistant in the Public Law Department, performing researches on the topic of public administration ethics, transparency, and communications. During this experience I was also responsible for the administrative supervision of the whole Department, for the developing and managing of the training line and for the supervision of the staff’s research.

My background is strongly focused on practicioning (1993-2002). In my early career years I worked as a trainer in therapeutic communities for social excluded. I trained myself on T-Groups (by K. Lewin) which I have been leading for at least nine years. I was most fortunate to by supervised, at that time, by Mr. Harold Bridger, a Tavistock Institute of Human Relations pioneer in tuning-in to the ideas and feelings of people (his popular motto during supervisions was: ‘Listen to the music behind the words!’). I can still hear this refrain when I’m working.

Later I moved on to training and consultancy mostly in public sector (2002-2007), but with increasing interest in human rights due to a close partnership with a network of professional trainers leading conferences and training on that topic. In late 2007 Save the Children Italy's Head of Education Unit invited me to meet the chance of expanding its vision on human rights education, dealing with the word “HUMAN” as well as “RIGHTS”, as described before.

Apart from cooperating with Save the Children, I have been involved in two ‘Youth in Action’ initiatives (”Education for Human Rights in Youth Work” – 2009 and ”Human Rights CREATIVE“ – 2011) as a project partner and a trainer of trainers in International House of Sonnenberg (Germany), in cooperation with DARE-Network (Democracy and Human Rights Education in Europe). Under the coordination of Head of Educational Staff, I led a two-days workshop on human rights education to young defenders coming from all Europe.

As an expert in human rights education (training, consulting, researching, evaluating)
·      Project partner and teacher at Human Rights CREATIVE created by Sonnenberg-Kreis e.V. in cooperation with DARE-Network (Democracy and Human Rights Education in Europe), in St. Andreasberg (Germany) International House di Sonnenberg ·      Trainer of teachers in project In-signare (drawing signs while teaching), for project “L’AquilAltrA”, in continuity with the educational projects that Save the Children Italy has promoted in Abruzzo region which had suffered recent earthquake ·      Trainer of trainers in project I.D.E.E. (Integration, Rights and Education against Exclusion), ·      Trainer of teachers for Professional Training Centre “E. Nathan” Municipality of Rome, in project In.Contro – Together against School Dispersion ·      President of the final conference for Forum of children on implementation of Children’s Rights Convention and final evaluator of the whole proje
·       Trainer in project Gemell’Aquila  (l’Aquila Twinning) for children in continuity with the educational projects that Save the Children Italy has promoted in Abruzzo region which had suffered recent earthquake ·       Trainer in project The invisible cities for children of l’Aquila ·       Trainer in project A journey to the future for children of l’Aquila ·      Trainer in project A magic bag for children of l’Aquila ·      Trainer in project Digital Divide, new technologies and responsible participation for children of Rome ·      Action-researcher on Millennium Goals, a research and training activity for teachers using ICT ·       Conference leader Ecology of communications, for teachers of Rome ·       Trainer in project Against Bullying for children of Rome
·      Project partner and teacher at Education for Human Rights in Youth Work, International Training Course on Methodology of Human Rights Education for multipliers from all over Europe, created by Sonnenberg-Kreis e.V. in cooperation with DARE-Network (Democracy and Human Rights Education in Europe), in St. Andreasberg (Germany) International House di Sonnenberg ·       National conference speaker Violence and bullying in school, with a speech entitled Ecology of communications, music of relations under the surface of contents, also published in the Conference documents ·       Trainer for trainers at Save the Children Italy's Education and School Department ·       Trainer in project Save the Children 90/10 for children of Rome ·       Trainer in project Everyone for children of Rome ·       Trainer in project Women Difference for children of Rome ·      Trainer in project Digital Divide, new technologies and responsible participation for children of Rome ·       Action-research on Millennium Goals a research and training activity for teachers using ICT
·       Trainer for trainers at Save the Children Italy's Education and School Department ·       Trainer in project Digital Divide, new technologies and responsible participation for children of Rome ·       Trainer in project Forum of children on implementation of Children’s Rights Convention, for children of Rome
·       Trainer of trainers in Save the Children international campaign Re-write the future.