Deciding together better ways to collaborate.

On October 24 and 25, JRS Europe country managers met in Brussels with the regional office team for the Regional Coordination Meeting (RCM). The meeting provided an opportunity for all offices to discuss the latest updates on European policy, evaluate opportunities for joint programmes and take decisions on how to better work together.

Reflecting on the meeting, the regional director Alberto Ares highlighted “The RCM is always a great opportunity to share ideas and developments from across the continent. But this time, we wanted to focus on how to improve our collaboration”.

Led by the regional office team, country managers evaluated how cooperation is working on Programmes, Fundraising, Advocacy and Communications and explored opportunities to improve.

Throughout the different discussions, the common threads were the enthusiasm for more collaborative work that would maximize impact while reducing the workload on the teams by avoiding duplication of tasks.

In addition, there was consensus to pursue standardization of procedures to facilitate continuous results regardless of personnel changes, to share easily adaptable resources and to create more capacity-building programmes that allow to quickly deploy expertise where it is needed the most.

Dalibor Renic, SJ, the new president of the Jesuit Conference of European Provincials and one of the two guest speakers, kickstarted the meeting by reflecting on “De Statu Societatis”, a document done by the leader of the Jesuits worldwide, Fr Superior General Arturo Sosa. After summarizing some of the key insights of the document, he reflected on the centrality of JRS’s work within the Society of Jesus.

The second guest speaker was Fr. Filipe Martins, SJ, president of the Jesuit European Social Centre, who invited the JRS country offices to connect with the other Jesuit social networks present in the continent, including the social delegates, Eco Jesuits, Justice in mining and the Global Ignatian Advocacy network.

During the meeting, the regional office also provided all countries with an update on the One Proposal. You can read the latest information on the Jesuit response to support those fleeing the war in Ukraine here.