Category Archives: Nonformal Learning

European Projects, Nonformal Learning

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

European Projects, Nonformal Learning

GUTS

https://www.gutsproject.eu


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

European Projects, Nonformal Learning

Rondkomen

We are really proud on this one. The boardgame that Ed Santman has developed and designed for “Stichting Levvel” has finally arrived. This boardgame is meant to be a tool for young people to help them to arrange their finances and to be better prepared to arrange their own lives. 

European Projects, Nonformal Learning, Projects, Valmopris

Valmopris Pilots

For the European KA2 Valmopris project, on validating non-formal learning in prisons each participating country has to deliver 6 pilot projects in prisons with minimally 3 prisoners involved.

Since Changes&Chances is not just an educational organization for prisons, we are running the pilots with a variety of target groups and with a variety of art disciplines.

The first pilot was Ed, Mirthe and Peer creating Noah’s Ark for the Bosch Parade with recovering drug addicts It attracted a lot of attention from the media. Under ‘ projects’ on this site you’ll find photo’s, video’s, and an interview with Ed of ‘Stowaways’.

In Arnhem two inspired teachers, Saskia and Sanne, of Cultuurmij Oost work with a group of young people with behavioral issues. They will create a magazine, so there will be planning content, finding their writing, drawing, photographing and designing talents will take place and then working hard in collaboration to get it done.

In Zutphen prison a band was formed and songs were written, rehearsed and played. The teacher, Hanneke, also gave personal lessons to a number of the participants so that good progress could be made.

In Rotterdam, in De Nieuwe Kans, young people without school diploma of which some have been in touch with Justice will be followed on the Level5 method during a theatrical project.

And last, but not least, down South in Sittard prison, Ed and Monique will make a video with the prisoners, and some of the guards and staff that will transformed into an ‘Augmented reality’ item to be seen in an app on your smart-phone projected on the façade of the prison when you visit there. Partners and other visitors will be given access to the app. The director of the prison is very enthusiastic about the project and wants to get broad media attention for it.

European Projects, Nonformal Learning

Valmopris, nonformal learning

C & C is the Dutch partner in the European Project Valmopris. Through the validation of informal learning, a learner in prison can become motivated to nurture this positive reinforcement in an educational setting, pursuing additional education (either formal or informal) or engaging more seriously with career planning. The impact of informal learning validation in a prison setting is clearly something with a significant potential to encourage learning and further competence development.

VALMOPRIS draws upon the tools and techniques developed through the LEVEL5 validation system which has previously been piloted across diverse educational settings, including in prison-based vocational training. VALMOPRIS, supported by the European Prison Education Association (EPEA) designs, delivers and validates informal learning activities with the focus on KC5+1 (primary Key Competence of “Learning to learn”)

VALMOPRIS will actively contribute to policy discourse on prison education and the role of informal learning. It hopes to bring a change in the mind-set of education in prison, raising the profile of the social and personal competences acquired through informal learning and the way they can be assessed and validated. It hopes to promote the motivation of prison learners to engage in in(formal) educational activities in line with the Council of Europe Recommendations on Education in prison and seeks to establish a continuation of the train-the-trainer program, designing it to meet the requirements of A KA1 mobility activity for prison teachers throughout Europe.

The project, will measure the effect of validating informal competence development on prisoners’ motivation to engage in further learning. Training prison educators across 8 countries to create and deliver informal learning opportunities and to provide systematic validation of learning outcomes, the project will explore the role of and impact of informal learning validation in prison, as well as examining the process of setting up and implementing activities for informal competence development in this context.