Positive Psychology presents 'School for Parents' - high quality, free of charge, online lectures
Positive Psychology is a well know Slovenian community-building initiative that offers lectures about various strengths of positive psychology and growth mindset, started in Jan 2013. During lockdowns we moved online and organised 120+ lectures, free of charge, collecting donations for charities, supported by socially responsible organisations. Most popular is School for Parents with 11 lectures addressing current issues (interpreted into Slov. sign language), in 2023 organised for the 3rd time.
National
Slovenia
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It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
Name of the organisation(s): Umna s.p. Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Nastja Last name of representative: Mulej Gender: Female Nationality: Slovenia Function: co-founder, co-creator, co-organiser Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Savska cesta 6a Town: Ljubljana Postal code: 1000 Country: Slovenia Direct Tel:+386 41 540 866 E-mail:info@nastjamulej.com Website:https://www.nastjamulej.com/
Name of the organisation(s): Skupina Primera d.o.o. Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Diana Last name of representative: Kavčič Gender: Female Nationality: Slovenia Function: executive producer Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Prešernova 5 Town: Ljubljana Postal code: 1000 Country: Slovenia Direct Tel:+386 30 453 080 E-mail:diana.kavcic@skupinaprimera.si Website:https://www.skupinaprimera.si/
Name of the organisation(s): STEP Inštitut Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Blanka Last name of representative: Tacer Gender: Female Nationality: Slovenia Function: co-founder, co-creator, co-organiser Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Rimska 6 Town: Ljubljana Postal code: 1000 Country: Slovenia Direct Tel:+386 30 998 276 E-mail:blanka@step-institute.org Website:https://www.step-institute.org/
'Positive Psychology for a Better Life' is a well-known Slovenian community building initiative that offers lectures about various strengths of positive psychology and growth mindset. It started in the season 2020-2021, when people were very down because of the (financial) crises.
Until the end of season 2019-2020 we organized more than 100 lectures – all on live events in different towns of the country, but recorded and put on the internet, so that everyone had the opportunity to watch and learn, even if the time and place of the live event did not suit him/her.
Because of the lockdown, in Oct 2020, we moved online; in 3 years we organized another 120 lectures. Lectures by various proclaimed psychologists and other speakers from the field are streamed online - and kept there - and are free of charge. In life streaming there is a possibility for a live questions & answers session with the speaker. Audience is asked to donate small sums to chosen charities. The whole operation (preparing, recording, and streaming lectures) is supported by socially responsible companies. This is how we created a socially responsible circular economy: companies get a special mention, people who need the content of the lecture get it for free, charities get donations.
The most popular and impactful among all different sections (Ljubljana, Maribor and Nova Gorica Marathons of Positive Psychology, Cycle of Positive Psychology, Conference on Creativity) is the 'School for Parents'. In 2021, 2022 and 2023 we prepared 11 lectures, each time addressing current issues that are especially valuable for parents, grandparents, and other caretakers, and for the teachers from kindergartens to high schools. Almost all lectures are also interpreted into Slovenian sign language.
Schools can also support the 'School for Parents' with small contributions; in return they get special questions for a guided conversation (if they show the lecture to the parents of students) and certificates.
community building initiative
sign language
social responcibility
circular economy
positive psychology
'Positive Psychology - For a Better Life' was the first one to react to and our deeds were very impactful. The lectures on YouTube got from 5.000 - 21.000 views, and even more on Facebook. (Mostly) women were writing to us that it became a ritual to have a Wednesday and Saturday evening for themselves to relax and learn.
Key objectives of the 'School for Parents' were to help parents, grandparents, caretakers, teachers in kindergartens, primary schools, high schools, and universities and to give them support and orientation in very confusing times. In the school year 2020-21, schools in Slovenia were closed for 17 weeks and children were kept at home, and taught online. The situation was very uncertain and tiresome for all involved: students, teachers, and parents. In the school year 2021-22 schools were officially kept open, but the whole classes were sent home for a whole week, once one student got tested positive for CoVID-19. That was even more confusing.
Parents and teachers needed answers on how to raise, guide and treat their children, how to give them psychological support, and how to keep their family as sane as possible.
We also wanted to help kindergartens and schools that organize their own Schools for Parents within their own institutions every year but were unable to do it in times of lockdown. So, the kindergartens and schools had some quality lectures to offer to the parents of their students - even though online. They also got more profound questions for a guided conversation and debate (in case they showed the lecture to the parents of students) and certificates.
Society needs mentally healthy families to sustain on a long-term basis. The percentage of children and youth with different mental disorders grew heavily during the lockdown and to prevent it - or heal it, when possible - we helped with lectures by psychologists and other social scientists with sound theoretical and practical backgrounds.
Ever since the very start of the 'Positive Psychology - For a Better Life' initiative in the season 2012-13 we had a clear corporate identity with a logo, tagline, corporate colors of yellow and black, and with a smiley on a small ball put on the graphics in a lively manner on our website and posters. We even ask our lecturers to put on something yellow when they give their speech.
We always took care of the design and when we started to use Facebook as our medium to grow our audience and build community, we kept to this corporate identity with every post, picture, and movie we published. The same approach we applied later with the start of also using Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
When we developed the 'School for Parents' in the season 2020-21 we kept the colors and the smiley but added a different tagline: "Because learning never ends."
We have always published encouraging messages, intended to raise positive emotions in our audience following the 5 components of PERMA model of Happiness as developed by Martin Seligman, the founder of Positive Psychology as a science: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishments.
When people from our target group (parents, women 35-55 and teachers) see the yellow color, smileys, and our logo, they know this is a promise of high-quality, science-based content. They write to us saying they love our designs for each of the events and lectures. And when we have events live, they come dressed in yellow, the color of positivity.
The 'Positive Psychology - For a Better Life' started in 2012 as a platform for everyone who felt down in any way in times of (financial) crises. Lectures we priced very affordable, but still, all of them were recorded, so those who couldn't come to the event in person, could watch the lecture on the internet for free. All the lectures are still online and still for free (216 lectures, interviews and round tables from Jan 25 2013 till Jan 31 2023, see: www.maratonpozitivnepsihologije.si/arhiv-predavanj.html).
In 2016 we moved the events from the Capital to the East and West of the country, so people from the outskirts of the country also had the possibility to visit events with less trouble.
In organizing events we give chance to the 'Society of Students of Psychology', named 'Kako.si' to help us with selection of lectures and lecturers, and we also give chance to students of psychology or similar subjects to become part of the team and work with us (and get paid).
The 'School for Parents' started as only online - and free - set of lectures in the time of total lockdown of the country (Jan and Feb 2021). Everyone could watch the lectures (55 minutes lecture + 20 minutes for questions and answers with lecturers) for free - BUT were always kindly asked to donate a small sum (1, 5, 10 €) to the chosen charity. All together we organized 33 lectures about raising children and donated to 26 different charities, that help improve the wellbeing of children, women, and families.
Besides trying to reach broader audience we always had some lectures specialized for smaller audience:
- raising and taking care of babies, small children, special needs children and teenagers,
- mothers, fathers, divorcees, grandparents (separately),
- teachers and special needs teachers.
Almost all lectures of the 'School for Parents' (31 out of 33) are also interpreted into Slovenian sign language for hearing impaired.
Lectures are used at Faculties of Psychology and Psychotherapy.
The impact of ‘School for Parents’ is huge:
Viewers get valuable high-quality lectures PLUS the possibility to get answers from the lecturers for free and again if they decide so. Audience:
Parents, grandparents, caretakers
Teachers in kindergarten, primary school, secondary school high school, college
Future parents, youth 18 – 30
Students and professors of psychology and similar.
Charities: For each lecture we choose a charity that we promote, and ask our audience to contribute by sending 1, 5 or 10 €. We choose charities that help children, women, or families in bad times. We choose charities that have a possibility of getting the money by short messages – SMS. We do so because we learned that people send money when they invest little effort (so, they just send SMS while watching a lecture).
Schools: Those schools who want to take part at the School for Parents, can get a take of the lecture (without introductions, thank you-s and goodbyes) to use at their school for their own School for Parents (it is a Slovenian habit that every kindergarten and school organize 2-5 lectures per year at their own School for Parents). If they do so, they also get more profound questions for a guided conversation and certificates as proof (they need those for job).
Students of psychology and related topics: get a chance to contribute with suggestions and collaborate with us, moderating commentaries in Facebook and YouTube and to lead a conversation with a speaker at the Q&A session at the end of the online lecture (in real time). They get paid for it.
Companies: they get a promotion and a recognition as the socially aware company supporting the sustainable, socially responsible circular economy. They can also get a take of the lecture (without introductions, thank you-s and goodbyes) to send to their employees, put into their own e-learning programs or watch together.
Society as a whole: is much better off with people with good mental health and good relations.
‘School for parents’ can be viewed on the internet (Facebook and YouTube) so its audience is the whole world – if only they understand Slovenian language (or Slovenian sign language). It is a national project, made especially for parents and teachers in Slovenia.
We would very much like to broaden the concept, first to countries of ex-Yugoslavia (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Northern Macedonia), who understand Croatian or Serbian language – with lecturers from those countries. This used to be one country (30 years ago) and people still understand each other, and finally they again interact, and collaborate with each other.
We also want to scale up the initiative to organize lectures in English language to get an even bigger reach, and to broadcast them all around Europe.
This is what we would use the prize for: to build communities in countries of ex-Yugoslavia and to promote English speaking lectures (or at least with English subtitles first).
In the team that organizes ‘School for Parents’ are Nastja (Economist, Sociologist, Master of Communication), Blanka (Master of Psychology, PhD in Entrepreneurship), Petra (Master of Psychology), Diana (psychologist), Ajda (last year student of special pedagogic), Adis (philosopher), Danica (Economist, Journalist), Monika (Psychologist) and 4 students of (Bio)Psychology.
Our team members also have licenses for Edward de Bono’s - creative thinking tools (Six Thinking Hats; Lateral Thinking; Simplicity; Power of Perception; Six Value Medals; Thinking by Design), Neuro Linguistic Programming – NLP, Strength Deployment Inventory – SDI, Nonviolent Communication, Digital Social Media Management, and are also skilled in using Canva and many other internet tools…
As ‘School for Parents’ and all the work for ‘Positive Psychology – For a Better Live’ is a non-for-profit project, we work independently, but cooperate strongly, having meetings once a week to see what has been done (and how to improve it) and what should be done and how. We talk a lot, learn from each other and previous experience and appreciate each other’s diversity.
The 38 lecturers that prepared and gave 33 lectures, interviews, and round tables in the first three years of ‘School for Parents’ (2021-23) are from various fields, not only psychology, but also: sociology, philosophy, economy, acting, social pedagogic, teaching, sports, ethnology, cultural studies, anthropology, pediatrics … We give them guidance on how to talk about their subjects in the context of positive psychology and the PERMA model, and the audience gets the added value from combining knowledge and skills.
The online lectures that ‘Positive Psychology – For a Better Live’ developed in the season 2020-21 – with its Ljubljana, Maribor and Nova Gorica Marathons, Conference on Creativity and the ‘School for Parents’ got a ‘Bronze Medal for Innovation’ by the Chamber of Commerce in 2021.
Its uniqueness lies in the sustainable, socially responsible model of circular economy:
supporters/sponsors give funds -> we organize and broadcast high quality, scientifically proved lectures -> lecturers get a channel to promote their thoughts and wisdom -> audience view them for free of charge -> but donate money to charities -> the society gets more balanced, happier members.
Supporters/sponsors get lectures, recognition, and promotion -> we get a chance to organize great content (and students get experience and fee) -> audience get free knowledge and answers to their questions -> charities get founds and promotion -> society as such gets mentally healthy people.
It is a 5 times win-win situation, where every stakeholder gets something what they need.
We also take care to encourage people with positive messages every day on all our social media channels, answer their questions and requests and listen to their suggestions for further content.
We would like to broaden this innovative, sustainable, socially responsible model of circular economy to other countries and languages, as we did not see something like this happening anywhere else.
‘School for Parents’ initiative with lectures (with Q&A, interpreted into sign language) and its innovative, sustainable, socially responsible model of circular economy (companies -> lectures -> broad audience -> charities -> society) can be transferred to any other language.
The ‘Positive Psychology – For a Better Life’ has other initiatives: Marathon of Positive Psychology in Ljubljana and Maribor (for a personal growth), Marathon of Positive Psychology in Nova Gorica (for a better partnership), Conference on Creativity (for happiness at work), Pedagogical Marathon (especially for teachers), Cycle of Positive Psychology (last year about trust, this year about stories …).
The methodology and whole process can be easily replicated or transferred to other languages (as mentioned before) and other groups.
For example: we are preparing something to meet the high-school student’s needs, as we feel that teenagers now, three years after the beginning of CoVID 19 chaos, need someone to talk to. We are also thinking about preparing a set of events - not just lectures, but also workshops and treatments in nature, as we feel people are losing contact with nature.
We could do that with a prize – if we could get it.
As mentioned above, the whole concept is very innovative in bringing 5 x win-win: to supporters -> to creators -> to the audience -> to charities -> to society.
We prepare a program of potential themes that would need to be addressed – following the situation in the country and (potential) needs and wishes of our audience. Then we promote the event to supporters to get funding for the fees of everyone who is working on the project (lecturers, interpreter, recording crew, streaming crew, communication people ...).
Then we start searching for the proper lecturers and – if needed – we also offer them training for public speaking. We organize a recording session (we still work with the same recording studio from the very beginning, a spin-off company of Slovenian Scientific Institute Jožef Stefan – the so-called YouTube for scientific and professional lectures). We record a lecture and edit it, then we ask an interpreter to interpret it into Slovenian sign language for the hearing impaired.
We promote the event on social media and with e-mail marketing, to get the interested audience. We select a charity to be suitable for the expected target group. We stream the lecture on Facebook and YouTube, moderate commentaries during the premiere, arrange a live Q&A session with the lectures and leave the lecture on the internet for later viewing.
We would very much like to also prepare lecture subtitles, notes, quotes, and excerpts for further reach of the lecture on other channels. Partly, we would use the prize for that, as well.
It takes a village to raise a child, the saying goes, and in the very individualized (mostly 1st) world (countries) the village sometimes is narrowed to a nuclear family or just one parent. People need communities, to meet and talk to each other about their challenges and problems, to get and share information and advice, to hang out and celebrate together. People in distress can find commercial offers, paid psychotherapists and people with dubious backgrounds, while the lecturers for the ‘School for Parents’ are carefully selected according to three criteria: an expert on his/her field, evidence-based lecture, good public speaker.
We want to fight consumerism, unethical behavior, and loneliness. We find these are among high ranked challenges, at least in the developed world.
We also want to show people how to behave in conflicts better, how to accept, respect and appreciate each other and how to collaborate. Lack of work-family balance, too much screen time and too many disturbances are demanding the toll on our children and youth. We want to help parents and teachers to feel better about themselves and to lead their families according to PERMA values: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishments.
United Nations talk about 23 global issues (https://www.un.org/en/global-issues) and our ‘School for Parents’ with its lectures, interviews, round tables, Q&As is addressing the following: ageing, children, democracy, gender equality, health, human rights, youth (in the alphabetical order).
‘Positive Psychology – For a Better Live’ with all its online lectures including the ‘School for Parents’, which started during the lockdown in 2020-22, got several national awards:
Bronze Award for Innovation (see: attached PDF)
National Award for the Most Socially Responsible Project (see attached link)
Donor 2021 finalist (see attached PDF)
Good Human 2021 winner (https://www.nastjamulej.com/2021/12/20/dober-clovek-leta-2021)
Golden Practice 2022 finalist (www.dnevnik.si/1042987284/posel/zaposl/maraton-pozitivne-psihologije).
Nomination for the award Apple of Inspiration from the president of Slovenia in autumn 2022. Since he left the office there were no final winner and ceremony.
The number of followers is rising each year: see the answer to the next question.
We get a lot of thank you notes from listeners (parents and teachers) explaining how much help they’ve got.
We’ve also been told that lectures are also used at Faculties for Psychology and Psychotherapy as material for seminar papers and essays.
Plan of development for the School for Parents:
Every year onward: to offer at least 10 lectures every January and February in Slovenia
2023:
to prepare lecture subtitles (for previous and future lectures)
to publish lectures also in a form of podcasts (previous and future lectures)
to prepare lecture notes – to be published in an anthology as a giveaway
to prepare lecture quotes – for Facebook and Instagram posts
to prepare lectures excerpts – for Facebook, Instagram and possibly TikTok posts
to make a mobile application with all lectures, notes, quotes, excerpts to be available all the time
2024:
to start building a community in Western Balkans
to organize such event with lecturers of ex-Yugoslavia (in their own language) for the whole region
2026:
to start building a community in Europe
to organize such event with lecturers from Europe (in English) for the whole region
The ‘Positive Psychology – For a Better Life’ platform is growing every month. When we started the team had only 2 members, now there are 12 members. Also, the number of followers on social media keeps raising, organically. These are the numbers, which get the highest take-off during the ‘School for Parents’ month.
Stat. data from 4. 1. 2020 till 31. 1. 2023:
Followers on Facebook 29.569 - 42,783 = + 44,68 %
Members of Facebook group 1.416 - 4,847 = + 342,31 %
Instagram followers 770 - 1.774 = + 230,38 %
LinkedIn followers 535 - 1964 = + 367,1 %
Youtube subscribers 1045 - 9050 = + 866,02 %
We started with the YouTube channel on September 28. Until January 31, 2023, there were 515.416 viewers.
All three editions of ‘School for Parents’ presented 33 lectures, interviews, and round tables by 38 lecturers and donated to 26 different charities. It was supported by 15 companies and 46 kindergartens and schools.
We already have a confirmed few lecturers for 2024.
Moneywise, we always kept our head over the water surface – just enough to cover all the costs, so we can’t grow faster.
Our lecturers share an understanding on the deep and transformative changes needed in education and training for a more sustainable economy and society.
