Meeting of partners from Sicily, Zagreb, Tenerife, Ljubljana, Vila Real, Bordeaux and Nld in Zagreb.
We are creating a handbook with best practices and a working method about storytelling for inmates.
A full right to education: by sofia antonelli
A very good article written by Sofia Antonelli of Antigone, partner in our project, to explain the importance of education in prison To read absolutely.
A full right to education: why e-learning initiatives could represent an effective way to enhance opportunities of people deprived of liberty
Any collection of rights at national, regional and international level includes the fundamental right to education, open to all equally and without discrimination. Everyone should therefore have access to education, regardless of personal circumstances. These include, of course, also the circumstance of deprivation of liberty stemming from a criminal sentence. The state of detention should not affect in any way the enjoyment of the right to education. On the contrary, education and training in prison should play a central role in order to ensure that the time spent in prison is not just dead time but rather a period during which a person can acquire new tools to use once outside.
The European Prison Rules states that “Every prison shall seek to provide all prisoners with access to educational programmes which are as comprehensive as possible and which meet their individual needs while taking into account their aspirations” (Rule 28.1). Ensuring the full enjoyment of this right within penal institutions is not always easy, regardless of the efforts made by the people working there. Few human and financial resources and the high turnover of students are just some of the reasons that often complicate the provision of courses in prisons. These complications increase further when it comes to professional training which is usually more difficult to organise, to fund and to make it accessible to a large number of people.
One solution that can at least partly respond to these problems is the adoption of distance learning courses which, by their very nature, can more easily adapt to the difficulties inherent in detention pathways. E-learning initiatives have in fact characteristics that are usually particularly suitable to situations of frequent changes as the ones that may occur in prison. Compared to a traditional face-to face format, a well structured distance course can normally have a larger number of participants than can follow the same course, possibly even from different classrooms or from different establishments. Moreover, once initially structured, online classes usually have few costs of replication and maintenance. Lower costs also occur in the personnel involved, since for example there could be only one teacher for many classes. Distance learning consent generally to implement more flexible courses that can be adjusted in line with specific needs. If there are recorded lessons or modules that can be activated at any time, courses can be started, paused and finished more easily. Such characteristics are of course very useful for a detained person who for several reasons may need to interrupt and then resume the course. Finally, distance learning could also provide for the possibility of continuing the course also in another prison following a transfer or outside prison once the sentence is ended. Another important aspect is that e-learning may be the only way in which prisoners have access (sometimes for the first time) to programmes and technological devices, thus representing a way to reduce the digital divide that often characterises long-term prisoners from people in outside society.
These are just some of the reasons why e-learning initiatives should increase in prison. Obviously their implementation should not be an alternative to in-presence learning, which clearly retains its central importance and usefulness, but more of a complement to it.
The need for more distance learning tools became even more apparent with the outbreak of the health emergency in spring 2020. Worldwide, the Covid-19 pandemic emphasised the importance of distance learning abruptly imposing radical changes in the field of education. In prison, where the use of technology is almost everywhere strictly limited, the pandemic has even more forcefully exposed the need for modernisation processes aimed at adapting to the outside world as much as possible. With the pandemic, issues that can no longer be postponed have emerged: access to digital education, the preparation of prison staff, the basic digital skills of trainers and learners.
It is in this context that the STEP (Supporting distance Training and Education in Prison) project was conceived, namely with the purpose of supporting the use of digital tools and distance learning in prisons. To succeed in this goal, STEP aims to build a comparative research, common guidelines for the enhancement of distance learning in prison and an ad hoc training courses for prison and civilian staff working in institutions. These results will be available to all prisons interested in expanding and improving their educational offerings, with the hope of contributing to the growth of effective training and thus the access to opportunities.
Sofia Antonelli
Associazione Antigone
Prota
PROTA project approved
PROTA, -through training of prison staff, offenders and ex offenders, this new project aims to transform the lives of ex-offenders after imprisonment and to support their rehabilitation in the community.
The PROTA consortium will work to create innovative evaluation and training material which can be applied in rehabilitation centers, schools within prisons, and related institutions.
The project will build the prison educators capacity in order to deliver and support an innovative training program which will give prisoners the necessary help to carry on as equal citizens, with rights and obligations. One of the most exiting elements of the project is the creation of a training game with VR scenarios & role play: Aiming to develop and train Skills like communication and presentation, flexibility, problem solving, taking initiative etc., the so-called “soft” skills of the ex-offenders
STEP
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/STEP-110351294767066/
In the penitentiary system, access to training is of enormous importance both for the quality of life during their stay in institutions and for the possibilities that people can access once their sentence is over. A high percentage of prisoners in the EU have a rather low level of preparation and training and these low qualification levels have important negative effects on the job prospects of prisoners close to release, a condition identified as one of the key factors for relapse. With the explosion of the health emergency and its repercussions access to adequate and quality training have become of vital importance. In fact, issues have emerged that can no longer be postponed: access to the internet and digital education, the preparation of prison staff, the basic digital skills of trainers and learners, are essential tools to guarantee the right to training and therefore to an effective rehabilitation process.The STEP – Supporting distance Training and Education in Prison – project aims to support and enhance the use of digital tools and distance learning in prisons.
Partners:
Italië
Portugal
Frankrijk
Spanje
Art no stop
Promote the creation of a network which incentivizes inclusion and creative education accessible to social projects and artists,
in addition to: 1. Experiment with new models of active welcoming within the communities, which provide permanent education for adults using creative residencies and art exhibitions inside and outside the host communities. 2. Generate a digital web platform which brings together social projects capable of providing training and services beneficial to artists. 3. Equip social media users with the necessary digital skills to manage artistic events,transforming social projects into places of Active Reception, promoting art and themselves 4. Train adult migrants and low-skilled project users in the technical production of art shows in order to bring them closer to the art world and give them greater job opportunities 5. Make the condition of the migrant visible through art and educate citizens in order to change their perspective towards migrants. 6. Offer migrant adults a different perspective of host communities where the user is the protagonist and engine of their community together with the technical team 7. Promote the inclusion of art as a form of informal education thanks to the consolidation of its presence and support in social projects. 8. Sustain the vision of communities as a social entrepreneurship project in favor of the principle of Generative Welfare.
Partners
Spain: http://escuelasolidaridad.org
Italy: https://www.ilfarosociale.org
Germany: https://diekunstbaustelle.de
On behalf of C&C Misha and Ryan were present on the festival Krearte in Granada, with the other partners of the project Art no Stop, Fundacion Escuala de Solidaridad.
crestart
Website: https://crestart.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRESTART.PROJECT
CRESTART – CReative rESilienT leARning communiTies meeting COVID challenges in partner countries.
COVID situation brought unexpected and new challenges for local communities in almost every field of their lives.
Because of lockdown and keeping distance policy local cultural activities needed to be rethought.
–map the cultural changes before and after COVID that have developed and will develop in certain dimensions of the institutional and national culture of the participating countries. Collect and share the best practices.
–develop and share a complex, participatory and user-friendly toolkit for strengthening the creativity and innovativeness of local societies on how to successfully tackle similar challenges and reduce cultural risks.
–involve different types of local communities: big cities (Nicosia, Rotterdam), a town in the metropolitan area (Érd) and a medium size town (Lovech).
Partners:
Hongarije: https://www.cromoalapitvany.hu
Bulgarije: http://forum.active-word.netCyprus: https://www.cardet.org
GUTS
Developing a method that will help to reduce reoffending under young offenders by setting targets for their future and hand them tools to become better and more active citizens. Use of rap music and storytelling as a tool to communicate with the target group and as a language for them to formulate their ideas and goals.
Comparative research in the various partner countries to the existing methodologies to work with storytelling and rap music and above all to the indicators that can define the quality of the interventions. (IO1)
Operators in the sector and the young inmates themselves will be involved as much as possible.
–Co-construct indicators and criteria for comparing experiences.
–Share outcomes research and involve them in the co-creation a draft version of the methodology (IO 2)
–Developing tools for all those who work with young at risk. In the third phase of the project group interventions will be created and piloted in prisons.
Create a focus group with family members of the young inmates, ex-offenders, prison staff, organizations involved in probation outside the prison walls and of course the young inmates themselves. By using the collective intelligence of this group and with the simultaneous presence of young people, parents and operators, we will create an opportunity to rework the experience related to the crime but we will also create an opportunity for all young offenders to formulate a way forward. (IO3) To participate in a project like GUTS can be a step to participating in other educational activities in the prison system.
-In 2023 an on-line rap festival will be realized at one of the same dates as the big bi-annual EPEA conference. Livestream the festival during the conference, one of the ways to disseminate the project results.
Partners :
Norway
Italy
Portugal
Belgium
CITIZENSLAB – community of practice
Citizenslab
CitizensLab is a European network of local actors/practitioners of change. Born in 2016, this network has been experimenting, prototyping and inventing with citizens new forms of expression, shared narratives, commonalities, shared spaces, real or symbolic. Since November 2020 CitizensLab has become a registered NGO in Berlin, aiming at working locally as well as internationally.
CitizensLab´s actors are active in different sectors and contexts across wider-Europe.
Community organisers, curators of spaces for active citizens, artists and performers of new societies, urban public space re-inventors, activists, disturbers, societal innovators, participatory leaders – people who are able to break out of our own bubbles and hierarchies in a non-violent way and who want to create alternative European encounters that speak to all people.
Magic of the frame
Three-year project on the impact of documentary films on young people’s worldview. Target group 14-19 year olds.
At a time when many people and especially young people live in their own “bubble” they are looking for “tools” to learn to look critically and empathically.
-Develop methodology and “open course toolkit” to be used by everyone.
– Research on impact and describe attitude change.
– Involve young people actively
Partners:
Hongarije
Hongarije
Litouwen
Litouwen
Nederland
Bulgarije
Bulgarije
Kick off ART OF FREEDOM project
Another exiting project kicking off. In the project “ART OF FREEDOM” we will work with partners from the UK, Hungary, Spain and Poland. The lead partner is the Croatian Association of Artists. Several artist who are represented in this group, have been making several murals in prisons and hospitals in Croatia. Together with them we will be working on two books on art, art education and art therapy in prisons in the next two years. We are really looking forward to this project. Unfortunately, like so many other meetings, this meeting to was online.
