Project

Today's world map shows us an increasing intermingling of various cultures that have to or want to live together. More often than not, these colourful maps are often clouded by inherent conflicts and threats of imminent war. It is why we believe that the sooner we act, the better chance we will stand to prevent such conflicts from breaking out. The reason why we chose to make this a priority of our project is the fact that this entire phenomenon is also visible from early stages of life, at ages when children should try to see the beauty of life, should learn acceptance and tolerance and should be free from prejudices. The basic behaviour that students generally resort to at their age to show disrespect and lack of tolerance is bullying, a phenomenon which has increased steadily and affected an increasingly worrying number of students in the past years.

Objectives

The overall purpose of the project is to fight the unsound mentalities existing inside communities which are built on disrespect and intolerance against certain groups of people by raising students awareness of the terrible effects of these behaviours on the development of a human being and by combating hate speech and hate behaviour inside schools.

The objectives we have established are meant as steps that need to be undertaken in order to attain the purpose:

to promote inter-cultural dialogue between different countries and socio-cultural categories
To reduce violence, school dropout and inequality by promoting values such as tolerance, acceptance of alterity and inter- and intra-cultural respect
To actively involve students in activities that presuppose working in multicultural teams.
To discourage the tendency to stereotyping and prejudice based on isolated cases of misbehaviour.
To enhance the quality of the relationship among students of different cultural backgrounds and develop their social and communication skills
To encourage the learning of different languages and cultures from the European space.

Number and profile of participants

2000 students in the 5 schools with ages ranging from 11-17 will benefit indirectly. Out of these, 68 students and 32 accompanying persons will participate in the short-term exchanges. 24 of them are at risk of social exclusion, facing economic difficulties or have behaviour problems. The selection will happen before each meeting (6 students/partner/meeting) according to a previously estabished methodology. One criterion in the selection of the team will be to have a wide variety of cultures and minorities.

200 teachers involved directly and indirectly. The project team in each school will comprise at least 1 school counsellor, 1 English teacher, 1 Arts teacher, 1 Music teacher and 1 PE teacher. Their work will be coordinated and supervised by the contact person and the legal representative of each institution.

Description of activities and methodology to be used

Project management (ongoing): Design and implementation of methodologies to be applied - selection of participants, communication, reporting; Financial management and acquisitions; Risk management and control; Evaluation of activities and results.
Transnational Meetings: M1-ES Presentation of bullying issues at local levels by each school. Current local measures to combat and prevent bullying; M2-TR The role of teachers in combating bullying. Developing a programme to include victims of discrimination and bullying
LTTAs: C1 - IT Types of discrimination. Forms of bullying //Sports To Stop Violence; C2 - MK Victims and aggressors within discrimination and bullying. Arts&crafts to stop violence; C3 - BG Neutralising hate speech. Music&dance to stop violence; C4 - ES Consequences of bullying. Photographs&films to stop violence.
Promotion of project results and activities (ongoing): Creation of website and updates; Creation of e-twinning space; Design of materials - brochures, CDs, DVDs, flyers, posters, banners; Dissemination meetings; Ellaboration of sustainability plan.

Results and impact

Booklet which includes outcomes
Programme for assistance of bullies and bullied devised and implemented at the end
Students, staff, local communities will become aware of the phenomenon and implications of bullying and develop better intercultural relationships
The cases of bullying are reduced
The schools become part of a network and can assist each other in dealing with bullying
Values like tolerance and respect are promoted among participants and indirect beneficiaries.