"Friends" ist eine schwedische Organisation, die Mobbing, Beleidigungen und Diskriminierung an Schulen und Sportvereinen unterbinden wollen.
Zielgruppen: Kinder und Jugendliche (im Alter von 8-19), Eltern und andere Erwachsene aus Schulen, Kultur - und Sport (Aktivitäten)
Hintergrund: In der heutigen Gesellschaft ist Mobbing unter Kindern und Jugendlichen weit verbreitet. Mit der fortgeschrittenen digitalen Kommunikation, können viele jungen Menschen den Beleidigungen und Diskriminierungen rund um die Uhr ausgesetzt sein. Zum Beispiel Mobiltelefone, diese sind ursprünglich zur Sicherheit gedacht, können jedoch auch als Waffen für psychische und verbale Gewalt gegen viele junge Menschen missbraucht werden.
Ziel: Das Ziel ist es, Kinder und Jugendlichen ein sicheres Europa zu ermöglichen. Ihnen sollen Werte in Verbindung mit digitaler Kommunikation vermittelt werden.
Schlüsselwörter: Cyber-Mobbing, Werte für digitale Kommunikation
Friends is a Swedish foundation that works to prevent the occurrence of bullying, insults and discrimination in schools and sport clubs. The foundation has extensive knowledge about issues based on values, digital communication and challenging of accepted norms. The Administration of Children´s and Young People´s Education in Partille runs under the Skolverket authority and works on a daily basis with issues based on values. Since 2006, when laws on equal rights were established, there has been a growing focus on these questions.
Project idea:
The Administration of Children´s and Young People´s Education in Partille, Sweden is searching for organisations in Europe wishing to join a project proposal under the frame of the Daphne III programme.
Background:
In today’s society of digital development and positive communication, we are also witnessing the expanding of the arena for bullying amongst children and young people. These young people can be exposed to insults and discrimination around the clock, which they have difficulties to defend themselves from. For example cell phones, which usually are viewed as tools for safety, can also be used as weapons for psychological and verbal violence against many young people.
Based on this worry about children and young people and on the knowledge that children and young people wish for clear norms and guidelines within digital communication, the aim of the project is to handle this problem as an issue based of values instead of as many today look at it, as being a technological issue. Our plan is to create a model where children and young people as well as grown-ups meet each other, something like a meeting point.
Aim: The aim is to contribute to the fulfilment of a safe Europe for children and young people, through focusing on issues based on values linked to digital communication.
The lead partner aims to increase the target groups' awareness and understanding of the importance of issues based on values within the following arenas: school, free time and the internet. We want to achieve an awareness about norms and invisible rules and how these can contrast the insults and discrimination that takes place in schools, in children’s and young people’s spare time and on the internet. The target groups will question the norms and invisible rules and thereby prevent insults and discrimination.
In the project, a model will be developed and tested with the aim of raising awareness among children/youth and adults about the problem with bullying on the internet. The model will include different components to tackle the problem and to highlight the need of value-based learning instead of offering technical guidelines and combating the use of online tools for abuse purposes. The model will also provide children/youth and adults (parents, teachers, etc) with new meeting platforms and new tools for an easier access to different online services, providing them with clear rules for online behaviour. Both youths and adults will have access to the same platforms, which will increase visibility and transparency beyond what would have been possible otherwise.
One of the components of the model will be an online platform (website) which will be used as an arena to make it easier to reach children and young people concerning a question which for a long time has been a common matter for all target groups in the project. Through discussing issues based on values in an environment that is a natural part of children's and young people’s every day life, the project will activate them in creative way and illustrate issues based on values from new perspectives. The website will become a new way to link the adults to the internet, which often is a more unfamiliar arena for them. New tools provide new angles of approach and new results for well-known issues.
Activities
Development of an interactive website where everyone in the target groups can meet, exchange ideas and thoughts and get information and help. The website will include a blog, a forum, overall information and news. Here, the digital evaluations are also implemented. Partille Municipality, the Friends foundation and the target groups are all encouraged to contribute with material to the website. The work with issues based on values like the challenging of accepted norms, integrity and children's rights will be implemented through for example workshops, theatre performances, cooperation - and valuation exercises. In the project there will also be a reference group of children and young people who will contribute with their knowledge and preventive ideas amongst their peers.
Implementation:
See attached the document "Gantt-schedule", which illustrates our work plan, divided into time and activities.
We evaluate like this:
Continuous digital evaluation on the website, digital evaluation on the website at the start and finish of the project and qualitative interviews with a number of people from each target group when the project has been completed.
Goal:
After completing the project, our goal is that other countries, municipalities, schools and sport clubs will want to integrate the digital meeting point which we have created in our project into their communities.
The effect: Children and young people will become more aware of the existing norms and invisible rules and will be able to challenge them, thereby preventing the occurrence of insults and discrimination. This awareness will originate from the understanding of the importance of issues linked to values in the young person’s school, spare time and the internet to avoid incidents of cyber bullying.
The result of our work is that children and young people in Europe feel safer using digital communication tools.
Partners searched:
Municipalities, regions, NGO’s in all European countries eligible to participate in Daphne III
Key Words:
Cyber bullying, challenging eccepted norms, values linked to digital communication
Project period:
24 month
Website: www.friends.se
