FIGHT AGAINST VIOLENCE TOWARDS CHILDREN PROJECT

Responsible Unit

Directorate General for Special Education and Guidance Services

Project Partners and Stakeholders

Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Family and Social Policies-Directorate General for Child Services, Ministry of Internal Affairs-Police Department, Non-governmental Organisations

Goal

To contribute to the protection of children against all forms of violence of a physical, emotional, verbal and psychological nature to attain high level of health protection, wellbeing and social cohesion.

Duration

25 March 2013 – 24 May 2015

Budget

3.000.000 €; under IPA-1 Programme

Results

Results based on core activities are as follows:

Activity 1.1: Developing policies for taking legal measures to prevent and follow up violence against children.

Activity 1.2: Improving the capacity of counselling services at schools and the existing Psychosocial Intervention Teams in pilot provinces for intervening and preventing violence towards children.

Activity 2: Reducing violence towards children at schools by developing a Model School "Students with Self Confidence and Developed Life Skills" which is free from physical, emotional, verbal and psychological violence and implementing the model in selected pilot schools

Activity 3: Increasing the awareness of parents, NGO members, non-teaching staff, teaching staff and students through organizing seminars, trainings and conferences on preventing and reducing violence towards children.

Activities

The project’s detailed activity framework is as follows:

-With the participation of ministries such as the Ministry of Family and Social Policies, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health; a Policy Working Group has been established and 4 meetings held in order to create a unity of policy between organisations.

-A total of 4 workshops, each lasted for 2 days, has been conducted (one in Ankara, one in Trabzon, one in İstanbul and one in Erzurum). Each workshop was attended by 50 participants (35 out of the province where the workshop took place) to learn about opinions, observations, expectations and solution recommendations of non-teaching staff in schools, teaching staff, students, parents, the staff of relevant governmental bodies and NGOs and other relevant bodies regarding violence against children in different geographical regions.

-A large scale field survey has been conducted to map the risk about violence in Turkey. A pilot implementation has been carried out and data gathered from approximately 10000 students, parents and teachers in 81 provinces has been compiled into a report.

-Regarding active cooperation between relevant bodies and Strategy and Action Plan, two three-day workshops in Konya and Kayseri has been conducted with the participation of 50 administrators (30 from other provinces) from stakeholder organisations such as Municipalities, Provincial Directorates of Youth and Sports, Provincial Directorates of Family and Social Policies, Provincial Offices of Mufti and Police Departments.

-5-day study visits to Germany, England and Austria conducted to observe good practices on counselling (intervention and prevention) services that focus on preventing violence in schools.

-A strategy and action plan and a policy recommendation paper developed to create a unity of policy between organisations. The developed plan has been disseminated to stakeholders in 10 pilot provinces through information meetings.

-TAT has completed implementer trainings for psycho-social intervention teams and psychological counsellors (guidance teachers) who implement counselling measures in the field. Two two-day workshops in Adana and Elazığ conducted to identify training needs of implementers of counselling measures. As per identified needs, necessary materials have been revised and 210 formatters in 10 pilot provinces trained. A total of 800 implementers have been trained through formatters. 15.000 copies of “Counselling Measures Implementation Handbook” produced to be distributed to guidance teachers.

-Pre-test about “Model School "Students with Self Confidence and Developed Life Skills" conducted in pilot schools before implementation, making an analysis of the current situation.

-A five-day workshop in Adana conducted with the participation of 60 people (40 from other provinces) to receive contributions from relevant organisations/units and to present the draft Model School "Students with Self Confidence and Developed Life Skills".

-To begin implementation of the developed school model in pilot schools, an information seminar for 100 school principals conducted in September and a total of 100 formatters, 1 from each school, received training in Malatya for 5 days.

-Monitoring and evaluation work for developed school model implementations completed in 10 pilot provinces.

-In order to follow up on pilot school monitoring activities, a five-day model school monitoring training provided in Ankara for a total of 20 teachers from 10 pilot provinces. Model school monitoring work conducted.

-An “early warning implementations” training programme for preventing violence developed and 700 teachers in 10 pilot provinces provided 5-day trainings under said programme.

-A “web based e-guidance module within the scope of RAM module” to be used for recording academic stories of our students and data on guidance work as well as helping our students when needed, has been developed to be turned over to Information Technologies Department. Its electronic infrastructure will be completed by the relevant unit.

-Post tests conducted and analyses made in 10 pilot provinces in order to make impact assessment of Model School implementations.

-Awareness raising materials such as family programmes, public spots, handbooks, brochures etc. developed in order to raise public awareness about prevention and reduction of violence against children. Moreover, spot films have been prepared to raise public awareness.

-10 information seminars in 10 pilot provinces held with the participation of 100 people for each seminar. The seminars were about joint measures between relevant bodies and the Strategy and Action Plan and were attended by 100 people including representatives from NGOs and relevant governmental bodies.

-10 three-day training events in 10 pilot provinces on measures to be taken for intervening in and preventing violence against children held for teaching and non-teaching staff. Each training event was attended by 100 participants.

-With the involvement of all relevant organisations, a closing conference held in Ankara with the participation of approximately 450 people to raise awareness on prevention of violence against children.

Planned Activities

Activities have been completed.