Since its inception, the European Community has been involved in conflict prevention and crisis management to protect human life and to promote human security. The Treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam introduced new instruments for political/diplomatic and security/military action under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Gangs and gang crime similarly cannot be dealt with as a national issue in order to have real impact in communities. Membership of gangs is becoming complex and multi-cultural / multi ethnic as people become more mobile. The increasingly international Dimension of some street gangs poses a cross border threat. (Europol - European Police Office, Annual Report 2011). Most large European cities are increasingly confronted with the phenomenon of street violence often generated by urban youth groups. These groups are responsible for much of the violence committed contributing to a feeling of insecurity in and across our communities. Most gang members, especially in the groups studied recently in Europe, are juveniles or very young adults. (European Journal of Criminology - Street Gang Violence in Europe – 2006) Project Aims -To redress current skills mismatch and skills omissions within the different sectors (public, private, NGO) which employ workers in services touched by gangs and the results of gang crime Project objectives -Produce current and appropriate occupation / work profiles for those working with gangs and the impact of gang crime in communities across Europe, a profile relevant within each European partner country and against which new learning outcomes can be identified. -Identify in each partner country key sectors, organisations and job roles working within gang crime and with the impact of gang crime (police, probation, youth work, health, social services, education, communities). -Identify through desk and consultative research in each partner country the knowledge, skills and competences required to develop capacity and ensure improved and more successful engagements with gangs and gang members operating in order to reduce gang crime in the future. -Identify common learning outcomes agreed at European level relevant wider than the EUGANGS partnership -Develop a new and innovative VET framework of competence reflecting the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed by community professionals to work in gang related environments, using EQF levels of proficiency and learning outcomes as exemplifiers. Major outcomes: Desk and field research involving at least 120 professionals and 8 professional analysis’s, an European framework and an on-line tool. To meet this gap in the community adhesion agenda, we must match skills and knowledge needed by those working in gang environments to the experiences of those afflicted by gang cultures, from early development of the proposed model through delivery to review. Research and consultation will use meaningful peer support between professionals, community activists and gang members themselves, all learning influencing learning content, identification of learning outcomes and the learning journey. Anchoring the knowledge, skills and competences of those touched by gang culture enables a sustainable learning process evolve to create a qualification which is not only theoretically sound but is credible, based on real knowledge of ‘The Street”. This can only be achieved through careful and effective consultation with all stakeholders and experts. For an innovative project with higher levels of risk the partnership is large and diverse enough to incorporate many different cultural backgrounds, languages and experiences to offer an excellent test bed for the initiative. The partnership reflects private, public and NGO sectors as recommended at EU policy level all to ensure all relevant and experienced practitioners are brought together to address what is a major issue in Europe. Each country is at different stages of development reflecting growth in gang culture. By bringing partners together from across Europe we can encourage a) more rapid development of ideas in some areas and b) review and reflection in communities where gang culture is rife that will aid their further development and the development in countries outside of this partnership to which this project can be transferred c) challenge current thinking and practice at EU level dealing with members of gangs. The promotion of mutual recognition of qualifications between EU Member States and the implementation of the ECVET framework on a European scale is high on the list of priorities in Europe as laid down in the Bologna Process, Copenhagen Process and Lisbon Treaty reflecting this partnerships commitment to wider transfer by inserting the new programme onto ECVET.
Since its inception, the European Community has been involved in conflict prevention and crisis management to protect human life and to promote human security. The Treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam introduced new instruments for political/diplomatic and security/military action under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Gangs and gang crime similarly cannot be dealt with as a national issue in order to have real impact in communities. Membership of gangs is becoming complex and multicultural / multi ethnic as people become more mobile. The increasingly international Dimension of some street gangs poses a cross border threat. (Europol - European Police Office, Annual Report 2011). Most large European cities are increasingly confronted with the phenomenon of street violence often generated by urban youth groups. These groups are responsible for much of the violence committed contributing to a feeling of insecurity in and across our communities. Most gang members, especially in the groups studied recently in Europe, are juveniles or very young adults (European Journal of Criminology - Street Gang Violence in Europe – 2006). Within FRAME GANG project, a set of piloting tools, materials and a training methodology were developed with the aim of identifying the competences that professionals need to engage within local communities affected by gangs. Three Intellectual Outputs were developed. The IO1 "Definition of the European gang context, professionals working in it and their profiles" brings forward the gang definition for each country and at European level, the portrait of communities affected by gangs and the professionals working in those communities and the professional profile based on a common structure. This desk and field report was the cornerstone for IO2, “Development of a European Competency Framework for Community Professionals working in gang related environments”. The Framework presents the needed competencies, knowledge and skills to deal, combat and prevent the gang phenomenon, aiming at reaching a common language and mutual understanding between professionals on how to address this issue. The third and final IO of FRAME GANG’s project is “Development of an online platform to support the structure and content of the previous outputs”. The partnership decided to insert the EFC-Gang “navigation tool” within the project website since it would promote the project’s visibility to a wider audience, while simultaneously providing background information about the project. Furthermore, a virtual library was created to allow access to a variety of rich resources related to each competency, further promoting the knowledge & skills of the professionals. This was all accomplished due to the joint work of the project consortium that gathered 8 organisations from 4 different countries: Fundação O Século - Portugal, IPS_Innovative Prison Systens - Portugal, Centrul pentru Promovarea Învăării Permanente - Romania, Centrul de Educaţie Creştină şi Cultură Contemporană AREOPAGUS - Romania, Labdaros ir paramos fondas "Garstycios grudas" - Lithuania, Viesoji istaiga, Psichologines paramos ir konsultavimo centras - Lithuania, Università degli Studi di Sassari - Italy and Istituto Europeo per lo Sviluppo Socio Economico - Italy. Throughout the project lifespan, the partners worked closely not only to develop the project Intellectual Outputs, but also to disseminate the project and its results. The partnership reached the following outcomes: 1) The development of a new platform for Community-Skills stakeholders and a common view regarding gang contexts; 2) A total of 82 professionals provided their contributions/experience to the project, through the organisation of 8 workshops and other 21 professionals participated in the semi-structured interviews; 3) A total of 39 stakeholders attended the short-term joint-staff training events focusing on the European Framework of Competences; 4) 1 project website; 5) Nearly 50 key-stakeholders - relevant to the local community, to the local communities, public policy makers and professionals – participated in the 4 workshops (multiplier events) to showcase the online platform and the project results; The feedback received from experts, those participating in FRAME GANG, sustains partnership belief that the project will have long-term benefits since the European Framework of Competencies can be used, in the future, to guide the lifelong process of professionals and to provide a pedagogical structure for training providers interested in developing a new educational experience.