A project against bullism

The Project
	QUALIFYING ASPECTS AND MAIN GOALS
	SPECIFIC AIMS OF THE PROJECT
	TYPE OF ACTIVITIES ENVISAGED
	EXPECTED RESULTS
QUALIFYING ASPECTS AND MAIN GOALS OF THE PROJECT NOVAS RES, acronym of the Italian expression "NO Violenza A Scuola – Rete Europea di Scambi", means simply "new things" or "renew things!" in latin. Both meanings express the innovative spirit of the project: the common intention of partners is indeed to undertake actions that can modify violent situations in schools, acknowledging that working on this problem means working for the well being of those who live in schools, but also educating towards citizenship, legality and democracy. The idea is to prepare new generations not only in terms of knowledge but also on social competence and skills for civilised living in society. The project aims to share, validate and make widely available, the most significant preventive experiences that have involved teachers, non teaching staff and families as well as the students. Another ambitious aim is to build a permanent exchange network that can maintain over time discussion among professionals working on this theme and offer support on the difficulties faced when planning actions to contrast violence. This goal fits in fully with the spirit of the CONNECT program that aims at consolidating relationships between the partners whom, over the last few years, have discussed research and activities on school violence that improve and make widely available skills for developing effective i.e. validated programs. This exchange network among subjects in different European countries will allow, on the one hand, to value individual competence and, on the other, to make experiences which perhaps take different directions. but nevertheless are often complementary and can be usefully integrated, become common knowledge. For this reason the project intends to share the experience of all partners in the different areas outlined to later allow the European public to benefit from the elements deriving from it. The guide book and kit of educational material, together with the internet site will make what has been developed very widely accessible. The joint actions of partners will be integrated by some local action in parallel so that the local and transnational actions included in this project will reciprocally enrich each other. The results of transnational meetings will offer useful suggestions for local activities and, on the other hand, these will offer themes for discussion among partners leading to a common base of intervention.
SPECIFIC AIMS OF THE PROJECT Work on school violence aimed at its prevention, and at facing the violent situations when they occur, requires a number of aims on many levels and the integration of activities held within each specific local context. In particular the following goals are necessary: Building a sound knowledge of the phenomenon, of the interpersonal dynamics which characterise it and of the factors that can favour its manifestation; Making the subject part of in depth teacher training courses to increase, as well as their teaching competence, their management skills with respect to relational and educational aspects of the classes they will go to work in; To offer self training tools for existing teachers having to face this problem; To define, test and validate educational tools and material, for use in the classes of the different school levels, which aim at the development of positive attitudes against violence in children and youths, at an increase of their positive social attitudes and of a strong awareness of what respecting legality and the rights of others in the ordinary social context means. To identify, test and validate tools that encourage parent – school interaction to improve understanding of the experience of students and to develop planned and coherent attitudes, in particular new methods encouraging participation of those families which are more problematic or less able to interact with the institution; To define ways that include and integrate non teaching staff, often able to spot and act in critical situations, in programs that fight violence; To promote and/or develop the integration of programs on violence and the positive actions to improve school climate, fight absenteeism and early school leaving, welcoming children and youths facing integration difficulties for cultural reasons or for disability; Strengthening synergies between actions within schools, activities run by the social-psycho-pedagogic services and projects run by youth associations in the community; Increasing awareness of the importance of developing evaluation skills for assessing the effectiveness of actions and making useful elements widely known.
TYPE OF ACTIVITY ENVISAGED The project envisages a series of activities for establishing an exchange, debate, testing and evaluation system among the partners concerned with school violence prevention. The construction of an European network linking existing networks (like some of those set up with projects funded by DG XXII in 1997), aims to allow subjects, belonging to different states and having different expertise, to work together towards given objectives and to make the results acquired available to an even wider network. The activities planned are: exchange, debate on the basis of the shared experimentation, production of material, construction of a common knowledge and reference base inspired by "good practice" and the evaluation of their impact and effectiveness. More concretely, the exchange and sharing of experience, by valuing and comparing the competence of the different partners and of what each represented country has implemented, should allow the construction of the following "products": Validated research and research-action tools on the theme (questionnaires, tests etc.); Programs and ways to include the topic of school violence and how to face it in basic teacher training courses; Tools for self training for teachers in service; Awareness development and training for non teaching staff on the subject to integrate them actively in programs fighting school violence; Activities that encourage interaction between schools and families on the theme of violence, with special attention towards the more problematic families; Educational material that teachers can use in the classroom at the different school levels, for student training and awareness development; Guidelines for the promotion and the development of integration between programs on violence and positive actions to improve school climate, fight absenteeism and early school leaving and welcome children and youths facing integration difficulties for cultural reasons or for disability; Project guidelines for strengthening synergies between actions within schools, activities run by the social-psycho-pedagogic services and projects run by youth associations in the community Reflections on the best methodologies for evaluating the impact and effectiveness of actions and projects.
EXPECTED RESULTS The final goal is, by the end of the period spent exchanging, discussing and evaluating among partners, to produce: a guide book ( in the form of a cd-rom) containing: Indications on setting up correct actions aimed at acquiring knowledge on the phenomenon (research, research action projects etc.); A set of validated prototype programs and training activities for those identified as subjects in the issue (teachers, non teaching staff, families and students); Guidelines for the integration of programs on violence within the positive actions to improve school climate, fight absenteeism and early school leaving and to welcome children and youths facing integration difficulties to increase synergy between schools, services and associations active locally; The components of a correct effectiveness evaluation system. A kit of educational material containing, for example: Suggestions for training activities (objectives, tools, methodologies); Activity pages and work routes for the different school levels; Games and other group activities for students; References to literature, novels, stories to be completed; Films, photographs, images; References to internet sites and multimedia tools appropriate to students. An interactive web site containing: The main material on violence in schools produced by partners so that all subjects of school life can acquire awareness and effectiveness on the topic; A data base on "good practice" approaches used in Europe (with references to experiences outside Europe); A wide bibliography; How to contact via internet the group of experts, appointed in each country, available as consultants to schools; Access to discussion groups among people developing projects in this field; Information on possible exchanges between students or classes working on the subject.