Erasmus+ Contact Seminar / Oulu, Finland / 4 - 7 October 2016
LIFELONG LEARNING IN PRISONS
REALLIFE: serious gaming and virtual reality to develop 21st century and employability skills
2015-1-NL01-KA204-008947
RealLife is an innovative project in which serious gaming and virtual reality are used to improve skills needed in the 21st century and skills needed for employability for those at the edge of society. Training skills in a safe and virtual reality will help prisoners to function in real life and enhance their sense of initiative. The objective is to develop an innovative tool, the RealLife game with a certificate that validates informal learning. RealLife will design a strong tool for many disadvantaged groups in Europe by implementing seven pilots in six European countries that will include 80 prisoners, 14 mentors and 35 prison guards. Focus will be on different groups, youngsters between 17 and 23, woman and (older) men.
The game will focus on new learning possibilities to be applied in prisons: digital tools, games that educate, train and inform, can provide an alternative sustainable learning tool for disadvantaged groups. Many among the end-users have learning disabilities and reject more traditional teaching approaches.
At the moment many prisoners and others at the edge of society have big problems finding their way to the labor market. Many inmates have no diplomas and no or little access to digital media. The SEPE certificate (Supporting Employability and Personal Effectiveness) that we will work with is a flexible approach in which a portfolio is used as a tool to assess the outcomes of non-formal learning. This certificate for employability skills is recognized in the EQF. In all countries, mentors will act as a catalyst, they will guide disadvantaged groups through RealLife games and disseminate and transfer the idea to other local and regional institutions.
Start Date: 01-09-2015
End Date: 31-08-2018
Coordinator: Netherlands
Organisation: Click F1
Website: http://reallifeproject.eu/
SKILLS FOR FREEDOM – Artistic paths to develop the professional skills of prisoners
2015-1-IT02-KA204-015070
The non-occupation, the lack of training paths for every individual and the loss of identity and sense of belonging to the civil community are the main causes, which determine a still too high level of recidivism of the youngest and the most unprivileged individuals.
The project grew out of the consolidated experience of the partners in activities related to theatre and arts inside the prisons, with proven value and efficiency compared to the specific needs of:
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The inmates, who need to regain confidence and self-esteem through the art and theatre;
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The inmates, who need to maintain or better acquire professional competences through practice with the recognition of the potentially certifiable training;
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The arts organisations inside the prisons, which would have their actions widely recognized in the EU, increasing the relations with the training paths of the inmates and with the existing education system;
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The prison system, which will be able to increase the quality and the quantity of the employment opportunities for the ex-detainees and to reduce the recidiveness.
For a period of 36 months, the project will involve seamlessly 30 professionals of the partners, and hundreds of people from 7 partner Countries, including approximately 200 inmates. Everyone will have access to and use the produced tools, available in the main languages of the involved Countries, free over the Internet up to 24 months after the completion of the project. During the 36 months, 13,000 individuals will take advantage of the project, these including public, social and artistic actors, volunteers, and of course inmates representing different situations in at least 5 EU Countries, plus Turkey.
On a long-term basis, the project will support:
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Promotion and increase of the artistic/theatre paths inside the prisons through the professionalization of every involved actor;
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Employability of the ex-detainees, promoting the competences, which may be spent in the local and European market;
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New models based on synergies among security, training and placement systems.
Start Date: 01-09-2015
End Date: 31-08-2018
Coordinator: Italy
Organisation: Arci Liguria
Website: http://www.skills4freedom.eu
Radicalization Prevention in Prisons
2015-1-PT01-KA204-013062
Deprived of their existing social networks and given the conditions of their confinement, prisoners with no previous involvement in politically motivated violence are vulnerable to being radicalised and recruited into terrorism. While the extent of the problem remains unclear, the potential for prison radicalisation is significant, and the issue clearly needs to be addressed.
Radicalization Prevention in Prisons (R2PRIS) Project seeks to reduce radicalization and extremism inside prisons by enhancing the competences of frontline staff (correctional officers, educational staff and psychologists, social workers…) to identify, report and interpret signals of radicalisation and respond appropriately. Bringing together international experts in the field of radicalisation and national prison administrations, R2PRIS project offers an innovative training programme for prison staff on how on how to recognise and prevent the process of radicalisation inside prisons. The project's target group is composed of 180 prison professionals from 5 different countries (Portugal, Norway, Turkey, Belgium and Romania) which will undergo a training programme with 5 components and 160 sessions of 3 hours per course: class, online, short-term staff training, work-based assignments and coaching/consultancy. An e-learning course will be developed and also a train the trainer course. Three short-term staff training events will also be conducted. To disseminate the project's results, 5 national seminars and one international seminar are foreseen.
As short-term effects, the trainees will gain the necessary knowledge and tools to recognise and prevent the process of radicalisation inside prisons. The potential positive and long-lasting impact of R2PRIS project are the increase of awareness of prison systems in Europe to the issue of radicalisation, and the reduction of radicalisation and violent extremism in the community.
Start Date: 01-09-2015
End Date: 31-08-2018
Coordinator: Portugal
Organisation: UNIVERSIDADE DA BEIRA INTERIOR
2015-1-HU01-KA204-013563
The project aims at decreasing social, educational and labour market handicaps of the target group. Among people under detention low school education and early school-leavers are over-represented, the group is characterized by the lack of basic, key and transversal competences. On the whole, this target group is characterised by the deficit in knowledge and information. They are lower qualified persons with low job socialization and/or work experience. Prejudice is therefore significant, making reintegration (including accommodation and job search) extremely difficult with a criminal record.
The general goal of this project is to decrease economic/social and/or political marginalization, to provide opportunities for (re)integration; to start a change in social approach towards members of the target group and their problems; to combat discrimination and unequal opportunities. Specific goals: to support the development, transfer and realization of innovative practices, methods and guidelines through cooperation (transversal competence development in the case of people under or after detention, testing of the developed guidelines/methods on a local level; mapping opportunities for the preparation for release (methods, methodology, tools) – testing on a local level, Focus on Freedom: preparation for release (a publication in the national language of the countries, with CD); social sensitizing – tolerance improving, anti-discrimination training for the majority of society (employers) – developing common training material, as well as guidelines and methodology; individual, customized help: mentoring, individual training/development and learning paths – guidelines, methodology and developing “good practices” – testing on a local level; project publication editing; organizing multiplication events (5 / 500); creating 8 intellectual outputs; experience exchange on a high European standard via common activities – knowledge share, visit to institutions, experience exchange: workshop (5 pcs/5 countries), common activities (creating intellectual outputs and multiplication activities).
Start Date: 01-09-2015
End Date: 31-08-2017
Coordinator: Hungary
Organisation: Váltó-sáv Alapítvány
Innovation, Development and Communication for a better education in Prison System
2014-1-RO01-KA204-002936
Prison services are being continuously challenged by society to deliver a complex mission: implement judicial sanctions, keeping society safe of harmful individuals, while preparing inmates return / release with resources that work to prevent recidivism on criminal behaviour.
Prison staff, not only educators (social workers, psychologists, etc..), are challenged to comply with this complex mission, but only a minority have specific qualifications in educational and social sciences. Prison personnel consist in its majority of prison guards (officers), which have mainly surveillance responsibilities, and administrative staff placed at operational sections. Normally, these staff groups did not attended in specific transversal skills training courses. The absence of specific training actions has an impact in the introduction of innovative educational practices and actions, due to, among other reasons: new learning and teaching methods knowledge; difficulties in presenting and participate effectively in implementing; the need to develop more communication to present innovative proposals.
This project gathers Universities, training organizations, companies and prison services organizations, aiming to develop work-based joint curricula - to be delivered in a blended learning format using ICT, intensive transnational short-term training courses on transversal skills, namely: innovation and entrepreneurship, communication, ICT and teamwork. Integrated in the courses trainees, in “local teams”, will have to create pilot actions targeting inmates VET participation, supported by knowledge exchange with ICT platforms, community of practices/knowledge, study visits and other events, etc… These training courses are aligned with Declaration of Bruges, Prison organizations and EU recommendations for adult education. The project focus on delivering value integrated in training courses throughout the implementation of work-based sessions. Trainees can verify the added value of participanting in training actions directly in their work context.
Start Date: 01-09-2014
End Date: 31-08-2017
Coordinator: Romania
Organisation: Penitenciarul Timisoara
Rete Universitaria SocioCulturale per l'Istruzione e il Recupero in Carcere
2014-1-IT02-KA204-003517
RiUscire intends to take advantage of the multi/plurilingual and intercultural dimension of the prison context to turn it into a place of resources, empowerment and rehabilitation through integrated training courses addressed to foreign prisoners, prison staff and teachers working in prison. Starting from the coexistence of cultures and languages in a place of forced residence RiUscire aims to:
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Enhancing inherent multi/plurilingualism and cultural diversity in the prison context;
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Promoting adult education in the prison context through intercultural communication;
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Developing linguistic-cultural and linguistic-professional skills of detainees for the social and occupational reintegration;
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Providing operators with the tools for a better understanding of the process of communication with foreign prisoners and to teachers with a teaching methodology designed to optimize the results of training courses for the target public (foreign prisoner).
Start Date: 01-09-2014
End Date: 31-08-2017
Coordinator: Italy
Organisation: Università per Stranieri di Siena
IMPROVING THE PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE AND INCREASING THE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF PRISON STAFF
2015-1-TR01-KA204-022215
This project is related to the fields of education training, exchange of experience and know-how between different types of organisations involved in education, training. Target group of project is professionals directly or indirectly involved in assisting the length of sentence. Specific objectives of the project is to define professional competences of prison staff (PS) directly or indirectly involved in the management of prisoners, improve the level of key competences and skills, with particular regard to their relevance for duties performed in the prisons. Improvement of the professional qualifications of PS will be achieved by encouraging quality improvements and internationalization at the level of training standards, in particular through enhanced transnational cooperation between education and training providers and other stakeholders. Trainings of staff are important regarding the improvement of prison and probation services. Need analysis that will be figure out with the face to face questionnaires by staff working in prisons is of utmost importance to increase the feasibility of trainings. In this perspective, questionnaires will be conducted with a 400 PS, problems and needs will be identified based on the Needs Analysis and solutions will be presented.
Start Date: 01-12-2015
End Date: 30-11-2017
Coordinator: Turkey
Organisation: Gaziosmanpasa University
L'ARTE DI LEGGERE - alfabetizzazione e teatro in carcere
2015-1-IT02-KA204-014891
The innovative aspect of the proposed working model is the alliance between theater and educational needs, particularly in terms of literacy: the use of theatrical methods as support tools for the traditional literacy courses, how theatre can enhance one’s appreciation and knowledge of one’s own language or in learning a second, and the use of theater methodology and literature to further enhance literacy programs.
Through training activities – conducted in turn by each theatre-prison group – we will carry out a pedagogical experiment. This will form the basis on which effective, innovative practices will be developed which will foster literacy through the creation of experimental situations, scenarios in which the particpants can "play" with language. The tested / applied practices will favour inclusive processes, aimed at overcoming negative stereotyping and prejudices commonly found in prison environments. We expect that this work will help the participant detainees (30 from each participating country) to improve their language, expression and relationship skills, and thus assist in facilitating their social and occupational reintegration after release. We will produce: the practical tool-kit “Why Theatre in Literacy?” for the use by teachers and educators involved in adult education, and the Strategical Guidelines “The Use of Performing Arts in During the dissemination activities, the project partners will identify the most appropriate situations in which the project results could be adopted, developed and usefully employed. Moreover, as neither schools nor specific study materials related to the binomial theatre-literacy exist, the research outputs produced by this partnership will contribute to filling this particular lacunae in the field’s literature, and hence will remain at the disposal of teachers, trainers and researchers involved in adult education.
Start Date: 01-09-2015
End Date: 31-08-2018
Coordinator: Italy
Organisation: Teatro Nucleo S.C.A.R.L.
Ecological Economics in Prison Work Administration
2014-1-PT01-KA204-001070
Employment is known to be a key factor in helping to reduce re-offending. Prison systems, across Europe aim to provide more prisoners with the skills and motivation to turn away from crime, improve their employability, and become productive members of society.
One opportunity arising can combine inmates’ preparation to labour market return with prisons’ own funds increase. Prison Industries provides a supporting role to prison establishments, for the management of their industrial workshops. It facilitates and coordinates the in-house production and supply of essential clothing and goods for internal consumption, providing essential employment for prisoners and opportunities for them to gain skills, qualifications and work experience to improve their employability prospects upon release.
This project gathers in its consortia Prison Administrations from different countries, universities, training organizations and private companies, aiming to develop a work-based joint curricula - to be delivered in a blended learning format using ICT, intensive short-term training courses addressing prison work initiatives and management skills, namely: prison work and industries awareness; marketing, management, innovation in public correctional organisations, entrepreneurship, communication, ICT and teamwork.
Start Date: 01-09-2014
End Date: 31-08-2017
Coordinator: Portugal
Organisation: UNIVERSIDADE DA BEIRA INTERIOR
Creativity, The Connected Economy and Offenders
2015-1-UK01-KA204-013755
Human creativity is endless, but for ex-offenders the words “No!” and “it will never work” dominate. Creativity allows one to learn about ourselves, develop fullest potential, survive in an ever changing world, with many mutually reinforcing strands supporting resettlement. Creative senses need to be ignited, becoming aware ones environment, wider community, thus developing empowerment in society, greater self-awareness; opening a new world of opportunities and engaging in learning. Creativity is a way of sharing meaningful things/ ideas, unlocking innovative capacity.
The project is developing a Manual of approaches, tools and methodology to offenders and ex-offenders to develop their creativity and access the connected economy. The training materials and tools are about: Igniting creativity; Learning to share, trust, connect; Understanding how the connected economy works (tools and rules); How to develop contacts, networks, social capital; Progression towards employability; Become a non offending EU citizen resilient in a complex society. Project partners are testing these new approaches, tools and methodology on 40 offenders and ex-offenders, using 13 as indepth case studies linked to a Social Return on Investment methodology to explore the impact the projects concepts can make. Project results are clearly linked and committed with Europe 2020 strategy and European policies to fight poverty and social exclusion and results grounded on a shared vision, tools and methodologies that will provide lessons to be learned and an opportunity to engage some of societies hardest to reach individuals. The Creativity in the Connected Economy is about helping those most at risk in our modern complex society, and through the development of innovative approaches to help this individuals to engage into the labour market/employment and to create a thirst for more learning. By learning to share and connect these individuals are developing a valuable social capital, which will help them in months and years to come, making society a safer place and helping those from prison or the courts to create full and positive futures.
Start Date: 01-09-2015
End Date: 31-08-2017
Coordinator: United Kingdom
Organisation: Pictora Ltd
Validation and Motivation for (in)formal Learning in Prison
2015-1-UK01-KA204-013882
This validation of informal learning underlines the positive social skills and competences, as well as other key competences relevant to learning and the world of work, thus strongly supporting not only the educational agenda in prison, but also the broader rehabilitative agenda. In various contexts, the provision of informal learning validation has had the effect of motivating adults – particularly those from broadly socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds – to pursue further learning and career-orientation opportunities. The impact of informal learning validation in a prison setting is clearly something with a significant potential to encourage learning and further competence development.
The project VALMOPRIS designs, delivers and validates informal learning activities with the focus on KC5+1 – that is, it will look at the primary key competence of Learning to Learn (which supports the overall goal of enhancing motivation for participation in adult education in prison) in combination with at least 5 other European Framework Key Competences. 15 prison educators will be trained in the project to deliver and validate informal competence based learning with a focus on developing the ability and motivation to learn, and they will run various competence based learning projects with a diverse range of 90 prison learners. The project VALMOPRIS formally evaluates the change in learner motivation as a result of the informal learning validation, publishing a report on the impact of informal learning validation in prison. Based on the final results, a further 15 prison educators will be trained, setting the project outputs up for mainstreaming.
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 programme, designing it to meet the requirements of a KA1 mobility activity for prison teachers throughout Europe.
Start Date: 01-09-2015
End Date: 31-08-2017
Coordinator: United Kingdom
Organisation: New College Lanarkshire
Education à la Santé des Pairs par les Pairs en milieu carcéral
2015-1-BE01-KA204-013212
The project “Peer Education for health in jail” aims to implement a dynamic of health education, in different European prisons, in term of improving prisoners’ quality of life and contributing to the reduction of social and health inequalities due to detention. The project targets to enable each prison health care team partner to set up a group of Inmates Health Contact. Inmates Health Contact is a group of prisoners that receive health training from the prison health care team. That training focus on various sensible health topics such as: hepatitis, AIDS, tuberculosis, nutrition, hygiene, scabies, communication.... Inmates Health Contact group is trained to become resource persons for their peers. Their mission is not only to be resources, but also to set up awareness campaigns according to the reality of their prison. They organize prevention campaigns, actions and projects around topics chosen according to the health problems in their prison, in order to promote the quality of their health.
Health education is an important issue in jail. Living conditions are difficult (promiscuity, bad quality of buildings/blocks), and health risks are significantly presents (high prevalence of tuberculosis, HIV, drugs abuses, suicide). Therefore, it is important to combat these risks and enable inmates to evolve in a healthy environment in order to preserve their integrity and their social reintegration. Hygiene, physical and social well being, and entrepreneurial spirit, are basic skills that prisoners has not often the opportunity to develop or maintain. This project is then an opportunity to develop these skills. The project includes two groups of participants: the prison health care team (doctors and nurses) and the group of Inmates Health Contact of the same prison.
Start Date: 01-09-2015
End Date: 31-08-2017
Coordinator: Belgium
Organisation: Service Education pour la Santé asbl
Education for foreign national inmates in the European region
562191-EPP-1-2015-1-BE-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD
The FORINER project aims to provide foreign national inmates in European prisons access to qualitative, low threshold, certified learning opportunities provided by home institutions but received by the inmate in a foreign prison. To this purpose a structure will be designed and tested which allows education providers to inmates to reach out to their nationals in other European countries, with the same quality standard as the home offer. The ambitious idea is pursued that if each European country provides home education to their foreign national inmates, it will logically mean for each country that a better offer will be present for the foreign inmates in their own prisons. They will all be provided with access to education from their home land, in addition to the local educational offer they are provided with. The project aim is produced against the background of the legal and human rights (foreign) inmates have to education, even though they have been punished and imprisoned for the acts they have committed.
The FORINER project builds on two highly innovative and ambitious aspects: ICT-driven solutions for distance learning in prisons and a Europe-wide network and structure for home education provision. Both innovations are being experimented with locally, but none have been piloted or tested on a larger scale. As far as we know these systems have never crossed boundaries. The main reason for this is probably the complexity of the issue, the safety question and the necessity of a broad base of consent of both local practitioners and policy makers throughout Europe. Therefore the FORINER project does not only focus on creation of the solution and piloting tests, but at the same time invests largely in creating a network of likeminded partners and setting up advocacy actions to promote the project idea and concept across Europe. The final goal of the project is mainstreaming prison education provision for foreign national inmates in all European prisons.
Start Date: 01-01-2016
End Date: 31-12-2017
Coordinator: Belgium
Organisation: VLAAMS ONDERSTEUNINGSCENTRUM VOOR H