Community based complex school program for effective prevention and treatment of aggression and bullying - intersectoral approach from best practices to policy making

Context and background:Violence and bullying at schools are increasingly prevalent phenomena in Europe. Although there have been numerous fruitful initiatives, the problem has not been significantly reduced for various reasons: lack of adequate training for teachers, busy parents, wrong role models, the legitimating effect of the media, an unhealthy political climate, etc. New approaches are needed to make aggression unacceptable, help children deal with their emotions, create a culture of nonviolence and empower schools and societies by providing them new conflict management methods. Objectives:Professional partners from three European countries joined forces to design a pilot project with the aim of developing and testing a secondary school model programme contributing to systemic crime prevention and reduction in schools based on alternative conflict resolution methods. Project activities primarily focused on creating a safe and caring school environment teaching alternative conflict resolution methods to students and their teachers as direct target groups. Also, the project addresses the broader context of schools. Local resource mobilisation (including parents, civil associations, youth and social workers, local or governmental services supporting teachers’ work, the police, public administration, employers) guarantees that the indirect target groups also acquire good practices and cooperation frames that increase their everyday work efficiency when dealing with the issues in question. The partnership developed the national reports, the research reports and the policy recommendations to channel the project outcome to relevant policy-makers (e.g. ministries concerned with education, school maintainers, school professionals, principals) so that awareness is raised about the importance of school aggression and up-to date professional material is complied and disseminated among them so the tested model programme will be available to and taken up by as many schools as possible. The long-term goal of the project was to achieve cultural change in schools through the dissemination of nonviolent communication, the introduction of alternative conflict resolution processes, the prevention of school conflicts and the minimisation of aggressive and other behaviours that count as risk factors for becoming an offender. We achieved breakthroughs and successes in this field, although systemic change requires more time. In Hungary, the use of mediation and restorative practices and classroom sessions were integrated into the school document (House rules, Pedagogical Program, School Policy) to guarantees that will help to keep the program in the future. In Malta, the lesson plans were integrated in the national curriculum and in Bulgaria, more than 90% of school staff participated and this is a very strong basis to sustain changes.Activities and methodology: Building the modell program to test and adapt it in the schools of the partner countriesBuilding institutional capacities for conflict resolution and prevention through training and mentoringBuilding and strengthening systemic inter-institutional cooperation with the local municipality in the case of Hungary, the Ministry of Education in the case of Malta and with European stakeholders Developing policy recommendations on national and EU-levelsDisseminating the project online and at live eventsExpected results and impact: Our project offers viable solutions for the direct target group in conflict treatment, channelling aggression and other destructive behaviours. The other direct target groups (locally available youth institutions, social workers, youth protection professionals, etc.) will be able to cooperate and divide workload more effectively. In Hungary, we managed to build an effective signal system within and outside the schools. Student mediators held classroom sessions for their peers promoting alternative conflict resolution methods. The school workgroup includes the child protection representatives, the school lawyer, the school policeman and a representative from the Szolnok municipality (Family and Health Division). The principals are also in favour of restorative methods and make it possible for teachers to grant time for these sessions.In Malta, the schools were reached through the Anti-Bullying Services professionals of the Ministry of Education developing strong inter-professional relations and also involving Kellimni support service. One of the biggest successes achieved throughout the implementation in Malta, was bringing together different professionals working with the same student community who all contributed the implementation of the model program.