COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WITH SOCIODRAMA IN A HOUSING ESTATE IN BUDAPEST
Workshop by the Sárrét Community Place
PRESENTERS: EDIT BALLA – JUDITH TESZÁRY
Sociodrama and power
DATE AND TIME: 28th of June, Friday 9:00-12:00
CONFERENCE TOPIC: Local Community Program
TYPE: Workshop
LOCATION: 1142 Budapest, Sárrét park 2.
MAPS: link
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 13
TAGS: Local Communities, June28 Morning
ABSTRACT:
In one of the housing estates in the suburbs of Budapest, a serious community conflict arose due to the cohabitation of people from diverse social classes and socio-cultural backgrounds, residing in various types of housing arrangements, alongside both Roma and non-Roma individuals, within a small, confined area.
We started to address the community conflict a year ago with community development based on the method of sociodrama, by working with a representative group of residents to discover their common values and shared resources.
At the beginning of the group process, two sociodrama assistants in training (Edit Balla and Beáta Bartos) led the sessions together with a sociodrama facilitator (Eszter Pados). By the second half of the year they become qualified sociodrama assistants.
During the work, the group expressed a desire for a place where they could be together and do things collectively. A large event was organised for the broader community to design this community space collectively. In February this year, with funding from a grant, we managed to renovate and open a settlement-type community space, and since then, we have been working on involving the broader community in a similarly representative manner. The residents also designed the layout of the space and assembled the furniture themselves.
True participation serves as the basis of everything we do. Alongside representatives of local organizations, the residents not only compiled the program offerings, community services, clubs, children’s and adult groups, and individual counseling sessions, but also created the principles of operation for the community space. We consider it important for residents not only to express their opinions when asked, but also to take part in the decision-making mechanisms that affect the operation of the community space. To this end, regular monthly meetings are held.
At this workshop, we invite you to work together with local residents in this community space to determine what could be their next joint cause to inspire the local community and build a social base. Is it institutionalization? Becoming a formal organization? Clarification of civil control and relationship with local authorities? The question of ownership of the space? Volunteerism? Or is it still about public littering, norm-breaking behavior, and low subjective sense of security?
All this is important because we believe that this type of democratic operation, exercising model behavior, can be exemplary for communities and local organizations that also think locally, who believe that increasing local active, participatory involvement can lead to a well-functioning society.
Ideally, the program is able to accomodate 10, a maximum of 13 conference participants, with the participation of 5-6 local group members.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:
Edit Balla: Community developer and social worker, as well as sociodrama and psychodrama assistant.
She earned her degrees in Sociology and Ethnography from the University of Pécs. During her many years of work in homeless services and transitional housing for families, she placed particular emphasis on developing services that promote the social inclusion of those living on the fringes of society. Her area of interest is supporting the coexistence and self-organization of social groups with different sociocultural backgrounds. In 2023, she graduated from the Master’s program in Community and Civil Studies at ELTE TÁTK and discovered the method of sociodrama within the framework of the Hungarian Psychodrama Association, which she applies in her community development work. In 2023, she was awarded the ‘For Zugló Commemorative Medal’ for her community development and social work.
Judith Teszáry MPE, FEPTO Judith Teszáry is a psychologist, psychodrama and sociodrama trainer supervisor, and international lecturer. She has been trained by Zerka Moreno at the Moreno Institute, Beacon, New York. She is a founding member of FEPTO (Federation of European Psychodrama Training Organisations) and was president for six years (2002-2008). She received a life achievement award. She is a member of the Task Force for Peace and Conflict Transformation group using the method of Sociodrama in conflict areas, helping the helpers to elaborate traumatic experiences, for example, after the Maidan revolution in Kyiv. Running two Ukrainian support/therapy groups. She has worked with psychosomatic patients, using psychosociodrama in a research and treatment project at the Karolinska Institute, Stress Research Department in Stockholm. She worked as a psychologist in foster care at Stockholm City Social Department. She trained social workers using sociodramatic methods. She is the chair of the Swedish Association of Psychodramatists. She is involved in a project as a socio-psychodrama director concerning Romani women’s experiences in Hungarian health care. She has used sociodrama to train Union leaders in the Swedish Industry Union and healthcare personnel in conflict management courses for ten years. She has been the professional supervisor and international coordinator of P.E.R.F.O.R.M.E.R.S, an Erasmus + project in Sociodrama. She had been a trainer and supervisor in the first sociodrama pilot training in Hungary within the Hungarian Psychodrama Association (MPE) She led the first sociodrama pilot training in Kairo, Egypt. She started a complete training program in Sociodrama in September 2023 at the Rakhawy Institute for Training and Research in Kairo.
