OBJECTIVES

Objectives:

• promotion of examples of good practice by sharing our experience in reducing school and family violence with other schools from other countries; 
• professional development of the staff involved in education (teachers, parents, managers); 

• promotion of the cooperation between various organizations involved in adults’ education throughout Europe; 
• promotion of the cooperation between informal and formal education systems from various countries; 
• development of innovative practices in adults’ education; 
• elaboration of useful educational devices for all European institutions providing formal and informal education: a manual, DVD-s containing movies and other presentations, a Project blog, a chat on the reduction of school and family violence and on adult education;
• improvement of linguistic, computer, inter-cultural skills on the part of both parents and students; 
• enhancement of the development of mediation skills for parents, students and teachers, by holding peer-parents,  peer-students and peer-teachers consultations concerning "The reduction of school and family violence”; 
• consolidation of the relationships between school, the parents and the local community; 
• case studies aimed at identifying the main factors which bring along violence between students and teachers; 
• promotion of a set of measures that can be taken in order to reduce school violence; 
• open to diversity and presenting the basics of democracy;
• democratic decision making and social responsibility, basic social and emotional abilities; 
• promotion of tolerance and responsible behavior, with no physical or verbal abuse neither within the family nor at school;

SUBJECTS AND PROBLEMS TO BE ADDRESSED: 

since the development of a child’s personality is 70% influenced by family, and so is school integration, we will train teachers and parents in order to ensure a safe environment at home and at school, with no violence. 

We will address issues such as violence in the family and schools, the violence caused by media and also internet, experience exchanges,  solving conflicts, social responsibility, open to diversity, democratic ABC.

APPROACHES: 

parents, teachers and students will be involved in all the activities that this project will contain, such as informal education, trainings,  seminars, publications, web pages, brochures,  workshop, conferences, symposiums.

Summary of Grundtvig Project "No more tears"

The purpose of this project is to minimise the occurrence of violence at school and in family behaviors by means of a thorough collaboration between the school and the parents, as well as to provide training to teachers/parents/students in conflict mediation and in the promotion of an assertive behavior. Family will have an important part within this project. Qualified studies show that 54% of aggressive young people come from families experiencing permanent arguments and serious, repeated conflicts. A sound, stable family environment will give the child balance and security, which is why we will be using informal training methods to enhance the parents’ ability to communicate and solve conflicts. One of the social and educational issues we have identified during these last few years is  physical and verbal abuse on the part of school children when relating to their family and peers. We will be able to identify, compare and analyze methods and examples of good practice in conflict mediation that each partner school uses. We will make beneficial experience exchanges and give examples of good practice in order to reduce violence and we will jointly elaborate a schedule and a training material for teachers, parents and students within the framework of the project .During the first year we will make case studies and will design activities meant to identify the main factors which bring along family and school violence, while debating on a number of methods used to prevent violence and solve conflicts. During the second year we will design the training material and will hold peer-parents, peer-students and peer-teachers consultations concerning "The reduction of family and school violence”.
The project will be a bridge between all the partners who will  share their culture.

Description of the organisation from Spain

Adult Centre of Monterroso – Lugo - Spain. Educative activity with internal students in Penitentiary Centre whose educative necessities are oriented towards a social re-education We work with students from about 50 nationalities, with real problems of social integration and special difficulties in languages,  in the line to develop the program of multicultural education in coordination with the Penitentiary Centre of Monterroso.

Description of the organisation from Austria

IFMIK is an NGO located in Vienna, Austria. Our institute offers different courses for students, parents and adult learners. Most of our courses are language courses for German, Hungarian and English but also psychology, seminars etc..  Our colleagues are well trained trainer with pedagogical diploma, but learning new methods is always very important for them. There is a tendency in a modern society that  busy parents devote less attention to their children and in many cases it leads to problematic contacts between parents and their children. Parents would benefit a lot because during the meetings they express the opinions that they need new knowledge in psychology

We want to take part in the European cooperation project  because: Participation in project motivates students to learn, parents to support their children more and teachers to use new methods and with this project they can feel more near to the European Community and understand the other nationalities more.

The aims of participation:
-parents’ motivation
-teachers’ development
Many of our students are migrants an so at risk of social exclusion.

Description of the organisation from Romania

The “Tudor Arghezi” Theoretical High School is situated in the South-Western part of Romania in the city of Craiova. This is an under-privileged area from a social and economic point of view. Our pupils are part of the middle class and they come from Craiova’ s neighborhoods, as well as from other villages of Oltenia. The “Tudor Arghezi” Theoretical High School provides a primary, a secondary and  an upper study system, but are students enrolled at the Maximum Security Penitentiary. They present a high risk of social exclusion;they are aged and have learning difficulties. The  students’ parents have modest social backgrounds, and most of them don’t have access to any means of information.We’ve identified among the parents the need to be trained, to talk, to express their opinions about their problems and we would like to find solutions to this need. School is the first, most important factor, but it cannot work alone. It needs the family, the community, and the entire society in order to support and guide students in growing up. We wish to get involved in this partnership because we are aware of the fact that school success is strictly related to how active their parents are in providing them with a good education. Parents and schools should work together to help students achieve as much as they can in their school life.
One of the social and educational issues we have identified during these last few years is  physical and verbal abuse on the part of school children when relating to their family and peers. Schools and community groups are increasingly under pressure to respond to a lot of social issues and anti-social behavior members of our team are all involved in different activities aimed to reduce school violence. They are trainers, managers, one teacher responsible for a specific committee within our school and another member of this committee. We will promote: a European cultural space, responsibility, tolerance, openness to dialogue.

Description of the organisation from Turkey

Seyhan District National Education Directorates is responsible for the central administration of all aspects of education and related services in Seyhan district of Adana. The Directorate’s main areas of responsibility are in pre-school, primary, post-primary and special education; the youth service; the promotion of community relations within and between schools; and teacher education. The Directorate also aims to ensure that children, through participation at schools, reach the, highest possible standards of educational achievement. The Department also promotes personal well-being and social development for adults, so that they gain the knowledge, skills and experience to reach their full potential as valued individuals.

At present, the Education Department of Seyhan can be categorized into three (three) different entities viz.
(1) Department of Education (Pre Primary and Primary)
(2) Department of Education (Secondary Education)
(3) Department of Adult Education.

Seyhan Provincial  Directorate of National Education has great potential of  teachers. Therefore there is also great potential for taking an active role in this project and implementing best practice findings, creating common idea on solving the problem of Violence which will benefit the whole region which has 858 schools. Economic life reflected the social life, seasonal worker immigration to the region started with the planting of the cotton. Our city started to take intensive immigration from the years 1970 especially from the Southeast cities of Turkey. The 38.6% of the people who have come to Adana with immigration are from the Southeast Anatolian Region citizens. 61,4% are the people who have come from East and other cities. Generally,the reason of the problems come from:

-Non planned urbanization,
-Immense piled population,
-Being a ghetto,
-Unhealthy life,
-Low education,
-Insufficient employment and enormous unemployment.