Background

Adolescence abuse, peer bullying and flirt violance are the most frequently faced risk factors against positive youth development in schools. Only 10 - 15 percent of the sexual abuse cases are carried to legal authorities. Teacher's level of awareness and their knowledge on school based prevention, monitoring and intervention against these risk factors remain incapable.

Project Goals

• Positive Youth Development education module that was prepared in the first year of the project will be revised and developed.
• Developed module will be applied to 2 000 teachers and administrators in 40 schools in the period of in-service training.
• Strategy meetings will be carried out with school counselors and directors of 40 schools.

Project Results

• The project has completed its second year and a school-based training program was developed for teachers to prevent risks of adolescence abuse, peer bullying and flirt violence, and to intervene these cases. The training program was delivered to 3,432 school administrators and teachers in 105 schools in 9 districts under the İstanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education in two years.
  
• Coordination meetings were set with the participation of all stakeholders including lawyers, prosecutors, Ministry of Health Child Monitoring Centers, Police Department and Provincial Health Directorate. With the contributions of all stakeholders, school-based Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) was prepared to clarify the steps of intervention for child/adolescence abuse.
  
• An informative video was prepared on child abuse in the first year of the project and on flirt violence in the second year.
  
• Training of trainers was given to 36 voluntary teachers with the support of İstanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education. These teachers will facilitate the process when a case is detected in their region, and they will share the project content with their colleagues through in-service trainings.
  
• During the period when face-to-face education activities were suspended due to the pandemic, four online trainings were held. The training content was delivered to a total of 482 participants including teachers from 56 different branches, social workers and students from 70 different cities.

Testimonials

“Even we, as school counselors, do not deeply know such risks. We are undecided about the action, but the Standard Operation Procedure clearly explains what to do. All teachers should have this training.” A School Counselor who Attended the Training

"Now I will observe the students better because I know what to look at." A Teacher who Attended the Training