Call for Participants - FILTERED Capacity Building on Public Speaking
It is our pleasure to invite you to join us for another exciting capacity building programme as part of the Filtered project, and in partnership with the Joint Action Prevent NCDs, with whom we have worked closely throughout the past 1,5 years.
Context: About Filtered
FILTERED (From Silos to Synergies to Prevent NCDs) is an Action Grant funded by the EU4Health Programme and led by Eurocare. Its main goal is to stimulate collaborative advocacy, health promotion, action and accountability at European and national level, including in Ukraine, for the prevention of NCDs among civil society organisations specialised in advocacy linked to the reduction of alcohol-related harm, tobacco control and the reduction of the consumption of unhealthy foods and drinks.
The Filtered Consortium Partners are the European Alcohol Policy Alliance (Eurocare), the Smoke-Free Partnership (SFP), European Heart Network (EHN), Youth Health Organisation (YHO), Center Life and the Ukrainian Coalition for Reproductive Health and Family Planning. Associate partners are EuroHealthNet and the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL).
What is this capacity building programme?
The broad aim of this public speaking capacity building is to help break the silos between people and communities working on different NCD risk factors, in line with the objectives of the Filtered project.
Concretely, with this capacity building we aim to:
- Invite you to reflect and think strategically about key questions such as Are we truly committed to working together and breaking the silos between NCD risk factors? Do we share a common vision? Why does collaboration matter, and how can we make it work across organisations, sectors, and institutional levels? What barriers and facilitators are we facing?
- Give you the tools to strengthen your capacity to express your position and engage an audience with consistent, credible, and impactful messaging. Topics include tackling commercial determinants of health and making the case for removing the conflict of interest from policy-making on public health or promoting a well-being economy.
- Give young people a central role in challenging leaders to think about and clearly communicate about the best ways of working together, as well as what it will cost us if we fail to do so.
- Help you develop powerful presentation skills leading to debates where a genuine conversation can take place on breaking the silos and working together across risk factors among those who share this vision and hold the power to bring meaningful change. One such debate will be organised at the final Filtered Conference which will take place on 3-4 November in Brussels, followed by the Joint Action Synergies Conference on 5 November.
- Further build on the joint communications work developed with our partners through this project, and amplify the key messages of the 'Can We Be Serious Now' campaign.
Programme Overview
This capacity building on public speaking is comprised of four online sessions and one in-person 2-day workshop. The schedule is the following:
2 September 2025: online intro session 13:00 - 14:00 CEST
9 September 2025: 1st online session 13:00 - 15:00 CEST
23 September 2025: 2nd online session 13:00 - 15:00 CEST
3 October 2025: 3rd online session 13:00 - 15:00 CEST
20-21 October 2025: in-person 2-day workshop in Valencia, Spain.
Engagement Level
Applicants need to be motivated to learn and apply public speaking skills and be able to attend all sessions (online and in-person). The training will be delivered in a highly practical, hands-on format, encouraging participants to engage in role-plays, modeling exercises, and practice various types of talks, presentations, and debates. In addition, a series of online pre-recorded sessions will be made available over the summer before the start of the programme; therefore, please foresee one additional day (on average) to go through the online modules before 2nd September. Finally, all participants are expected to be available to attend and speak at the final Filtered Conference on 3-4 November in Brussels.
Why Apply?
Participants will have the opportunity to crack the code of effective persuasion and build a lifetime skill, useful beyond this training opportunity.
Participants will have the opportunity to network with public health professionals working on different risk factors and learn from each other’s fields.
Selected participants will have the opportunity to showcase their skills at the final Filtered Conference.
The Trainer
Magdalena Petryniak is an experienced communication strategist, trainer, and public speaker, specialising in leadership, influence, and storytelling, with a strong background in executive training, conference moderation, and public relations. Magdalena was one of the main leaders who introduced smoke-free legislation in Poland in 2010. If you are interested to find out more about the trainer, you can read her story here.
Participants Profile
Ideally, participants should fulfil the following criteria:
- Public health leaders (e.g. board members of health NGOs, advocacy, public/external affairs staff in relations with decision-makers, community leaders, representatives of professional groups etc.)
- People working on policies related to alcohol, tobacco or unhealthy food and drinks.
- People who are familiar with and have engaged with the activities of the Filtered project (e.g. capacity building on pro-health taxes, Slovenia Conference, Communications Campaign Can We Be Serious Now etc.).
- Individuals who will continue to play an active role beyond the project, ensuring a long-term perspective
- Motivated to learn and apply public speaking skills and to apply them to help breaking the silos
- Availability to attend the online and in-person workshops
- Availability to attend the Filtered Final Conference (3–4 November 2025)
Selection Process
In addition to checking the criteria mentioned above, in the selection process we will aim to ensure gender, age and geographical balance.
The Steering Committee of Filtered, comprising of members of all Consortium Partners of the project will make the final decision regarding participants selection, based on the available funds and venue logistics.
Logistics
Selected participants will be funded by the Filtered project. The grant will cover accommodation (2 nights), meals provided during the event, and travel, up to a ceiling set per participant and per country of residence, in accordance with the EU4Health Programme rules. Only participants from the following countries are eligible to be funded by the Filtered project: EU countries, Norway, Iceland, Ukraine, Moldova, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. For more information regarding logistics, please contact Caren Willig at
A number of participants might be invited to attend at their own cost, if capacity allows.
Application Process
- Call for applications open until 10 July (deadline extended from 3 July)
- Selection final decision by 20 July
- Participants informed of the selection process results on 22 July