Pathways to Reconciliation: Investigating the impact of ES.PE.RE (Schools of Forgiveness and Reconciliation) on psychological and social well being

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This project investigates the impact of ES.PE.RE, a third-sector programme of schools for forgiveness and reconciliation, on the psychological and social wellbeing of victims of the Colombian conflict. More specifically, it studies if and how these Schools for Forgiveness and Reconciliation improve mental health, social capital, and positive life tracks, all of which central to stabilising communities hardly hit by armed conflict.Forgiveness and reconciliation have a central role in the reconstruction of civil-war-torn countries. Although difficult to realise, they are key social and psychological processes for aiding people who have been placed in a vulnerable situation move past their debilitating circumstances. Depression, loss of emotional control, feelings of rage and vengeance are frequent outcomes of violent traumatic events and experiences of justice having been offended. In combination, they result in powerful barriers to return to a functional livelihood. Recent research on the consequences of traumatic events shows that diminished mental health as an outcome of political violence translates into a loss of social capital and decreased capacity to re-join communal and productive living. Individual suffering intersects with societal negative representations and stereotypical social attitudes towards those involved, compromising both life trajectories and wider social cohesion. This in turn obstructs individual, social and economic development, with ramifications that go well beyond the locales most affected by conflict. In this project, we seek to assess if participation in ES.PE.Re (Schools for Forgiveness and Reconciliation) results in measurable sustained improvements in psychological and social well being, defined as improvements in the areas of mental health, social capital and choosing a fulfilling life-track. We adopt a clinical socio-cultural approach to human development and wellbeing that combines the individual, community and societal levels of analysis. We aim to investigate both the detrimental consequences of violence and how to forge positive responses to these consequences. We will work in five municipalities prioritised by the Colombian government for the high levels of violence experienced during the conflict. Each community is located in a different region of the country and all have been struggling with reconciliation. In each one of these municipalities, two Schools for Forgiveness and Reconciliation will take place, each comprising twenty-five participants of different age groups, 16-25 years old and 25+ years old. Quantitative measures of mental health, social capital and life-track choices will be administered to participants at four different points: before and after the SFRs, with three and nine-months follow-ups. A measure of forgiveness and reconciliation will also be administered in order to chart willingness to forgive and reconcile as both, outcome of the intervention and their mediating role on psychological and social well being. A qualitative interviewing protocol will explore first-person perspectives and narratives of self, community, social attitudes towards people involved in the conflict and potential futures. So far, ES.PE.RE workshops have been widely conducted in Colombia; however, we still need to know more about the outcomes of the intervention and how these are sustained over time. Systematic evidence is decisive for supporting these initiatives and developing policy that fosters positive futures for the individuals and communities affected by the armed conflict. This project contributes to these aims by systematising evidence, generating knowledge exchange and impact, and informing evidence-based policy making in the domains of mental health, social capital and human development.