Training courses facilitated by Maria Franchi

Maria has worked as a community development worker and as a consultant to NGOs, public bodies, co-operatives and activist groups specialising in change-making through non-hierarchical, inclusive, liberatory and participatory approaches for the last 30 years. Maria also has over 25 years of experience as a facilitator and trainer in facilitation, conflict resolution and community development. She is a practitioner of various participatory and conflict resolution approaches including Participatory Learning Appraisal and Reflect-Action. Maria is completing a PhD looking at the specific relational impacts of a universal basic income alongside community organising, in particular the impacts on collective agency of women in the communities.

Maria has worked with campaigning and activist organisations, pioneers in housing and intentional communities, urban communities and with a range of small, medium and large organisations to enable facilitation, participation and collaborative leadership to support people in meeting their needs and goals. Maria uses a range of experiential tools and methods to bring clarity and consensus to live issues.

She is a member of the international Association of Facilitators, Rhizome Cooperative – a coop specialising in conflict resolution, consensus building and facilitation of contentious issues.

Maria has a Bed (Hons),  Masters in Sociology focused on ‘Political Activism and New Social Movements’. She is currently studying at UBI and participatory methods for her PhD.