MEDIA RELEASE
Coady International Institute and Fundación Educacion Popular en Salud (EPES) to offer regional Women’s Leadership course in Chile
Women leaders from Central and South America have a new opportunity to build their leadership skills and learn to better position themselves and their organizations for creating social change. Coady International Institute is collaborating with Fundación Educacion Popular en Salud (Popular Education in Health) (EPES) for Women’s Leadership in Community Development, a certificate course to be held November 16 to 23, 2019 in Santiago, Chile.
EPES (Educación Popular en Salud) was founded in 1982 in Santiago, Chile to promote health with dignity for the poor through empowerment and collective action. EPES strives to improve the health and quality of life of people and communities living in situations of vulnerability through participatory strategies of education, advocacy and social mobilization, with a focus on gender equality, diversity, human rights and sustainability. The organization prioritizes the development of collective capabilities and leadership in women’s health issues from a gender perspective.
In 2010, EPES launched its Escuela Internacional, a 12-day international training course on popular education and participatory and community-based strategies for health. Now approaching its 11th year, the Escuela Internacional has hosted 187 participants from 25 countries across Latin America and the United States, as well as several African countries.
To learn more about EPES go to www.epes.cl
EPES founder Karen Anderson and Coady Institute director women and Indigenous programming Eileen Alma in Santiago, Chile. (May 2019)
St. Francis Xavier University established Coady International Institute in 1959 as part of its commitment to community leadership development and social responsibility. Guided by Rev. Dr. Moses Coady’s vision of ‘a full and abundant life for all’, the Institute’s mission is to deliver educational programs to community leaders from around the globe who are encouraged to examine what their communities already have and can do, rather than with what they don’t have and can’t do.
Eileen Alma, Coady’s Director of Women and Indigenous Programming, is leading the partnership for the Institute.
“Coady Institute has had a long history of graduates from Latin America and the Caribbean who have shared their rich experiences of popular education and community building with Coady and the global community,” Alma says. “As we celebrate our 60th anniversary year, we are very pleased to, once again, work in a concentrated way with strong women leaders from across Central and South America by offering a robust women’s leadership course in Spanish in the region. We’re delighted to co-develop and deliver the program with the EPES team, including Coady graduate Angelina Jara Garcia, who took part in our Global Change Leaders program in 2017.”
The course will offer participants the opportunity to develop vision and leadership approaches that are gender-sensitive and women-inclusive which lead to innovation and social change. Participants will learn practical new strategies for moving community development forward with gender sensitive processes, assess their life experiences for personal strengths and motivations, build a leadership profile that matches their strengths and capacities, and network with an inspired group of women eager to break down gender-oriented barriers and constraints that hinder women’s progress.
“For Fundación EPES, it is a tremendously enriching experience to establish a partnership with Coady Institute to jointly develop this leadership course for women in Latin America”, stated the Executive Director of EPES, Sonia Covarrubias.
“Both institutions firmly believe in the capacities of women to transform their communities. This alliance will make it possible to strengthen young women leaders in the region who are capable of addressing the dramatic inequalities that affect women and to help build fairer, more inclusive and democratic societies.
EPES will launch the call for applications shortly.
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To schedule an interview, contact:
Brian Lazzuri
blazzuri@stfx.ca
Manager, Marketing and Communications
Coady International Institute.
About Coady International Institute
Established in 1959, Coady International Institute is committed to accompanying generations of global leaders skilled in the application of citizen-led, asset-based, and community-driven leadership for economic and social change. Located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People, on the campus of St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Coady International Institute includes a network of leaders in 133 countries globally.
Learn more at coady.stfx.ca