Our Roots - A Gift from the South

Training for Transformation has its origins in the innovative work of Anne Hope and Sally Timmel who, in the 1970s in East Africa, began the journey of shaping a comprehensive approach to help people develop self reliant communities.  

Five sources or streams were particularly important in affording them insight, ideas, processes and practices. The streams were

    Paulo Freire's work on education and liberation,

    human relations training in groupwork,

    organisational development,

    social analysis and

    spiritual sources of inspiration.

Anne and Sally's great gift lay in the way they created a coherent, systematic and wholesome approach from these diverse streams. Over a period of three decades they made their work available in four volumes called Training for Transformation.

Their approach caught the imagination of many people throughout the world who adopted and adapted the approach and in their own circumstances and cultures developed new and innovative ways of applying it.

In 1981 a number of people working in Ireland and overseas came together to explore the possibility of using the approach in Ireland. Over the following years that group developed into PARTNERS Training for Transformation.

In 2001 PARTNERS Training for Transformation published PARTNERS Companion to Training for Transformation, a work based on twenty years of using the approach in Ireland and elsewhere. As PARTNERS grows, develops and innovates we wish to acknowledge our roots and the wonderful gift we received from the South