“Educate me like this and pass it on”

Prevention, aggressive behavior, social services

Informative Campaign

Parents, children

Equilibrium Bulgaria and Complex for social services for children and families, the town of Rousse

Bulgaria

English

Parents, Young People.

The present practice is the different approach to preventing aggressive behavior among children of the Complex for social services for kids and families (CSSKF), Ruse. CSSKF works actively for prevention of violence and aggression and conflict resolution through conducting the following kinds of activities with children and parents: training courses, scout camps, participation in the club “I win – you win”, conducting regular meetings with the resource group /pedagogic advisors and psychologists from the schools in Rousse/ and accentuating on the topic of violence in its different expressions; discussing and exchanging experiences among teachers participating in the group for parental support /parents of children with behavioral deviations/ on their opinions for the reasons and ways in which violence can be diminished. CSSKF conducted a campaign on violence prevention “Educate me like this and pass it on”.

The campaign took place in two stages. The first stage included distribution of pyramids, brochures and armbands around the city. Representatives of the resource group were active in Rousse’s schools. Pedagogical advisors and young volunteers met parents and asked them to join the campaign, to wear the armband and accept the guidelines described in the pyramid and the brochure. Teachers and ancillary staff have also been invited to join the campaign and further disseminate the campaign products.
The second stage was named “Mine – yours – ours: a shared right to safety”. The idea was to enter schools and other institutions in Rousse to demonstrate interactive workshops and launch a method of providing children with the personal skills needed to curb aggressive behavior. Thanks to the developed partnership network with 10 schools in Rousse, there were conducted a series of interactive sessions. About 150 children at the age of 9 to 18 took place in the events. During the workshops the children come to realize that, although they all have their own personalities and characteristics, they share fundamental rights – the right to safety, the right to hold and express an opinion or stand a ground. Through case studies and participating in role plays, participants learn how to transform conflict – attack and defense – into cooperation.
Scout camps are organized on the beautiful banks of the river Roussenski Lom. Placed under extreme conditions, the participants – mainly children with aggressive behavior – demonstrate compassion, care, support to the smaller and weaker participants.
The accompanying sense of humor during camping added to achieving a sense of solidarity. At the end of the camp conflicts are no longer resolved through aggression and violence.
Quite positive are also the result of club VIP-zone and “I win – you win”, as well as the regular meetings with pedagogic advisors and psychologists, at which the most serious cases of different kinds of violence are discussed.

Help-line/counseling, Parent training/meetings, Playground supervision, Information for parents, Cooperative group work, Videos, Peer support.

The proposed practice is useful because it proposes an active educational position on the problems of violence among children and youths, it provides opportunities for application of untraditional communication methods, it provides information to the parents, it creates opportunities for group work and support both for the parents and the children. The practice uses a combination of activities and approaches, through which it successfully reaches its target groups and involves them into a process of reaching social maturity. pages

The overall approach of CSSKF and Equilibrium can be practically used by different educational and supportive institutions for the purpose of organizing similar activities for prevention and curbing violence among youths and children.

This good practice, as well as the other activities of Equilibrium, are evaluated here: http://eq-bg.com/Публикации%20на%20EQ/90/

Zornitsa Staneva

Zinev Art Technologies

Project manager