Witnessing Domestic Violence, despite its poor social acknowledgement, is widespread and with serious effects on the psychological balance and social integration of minors. In Italy, there are about 690.000 cases, more than 60% of which are cases of direct witnessing of violence. Witnessing Domestic Violence, despite its poor social acknowledgement, is widespread and with serious effects on the psychological balance and social integration of minors. In Italy, there are about 690.000 cases, more than 60% of which are cases of direct witnessing of violence. The effects of witnessing physical and psychological abuses mainly concern adjustment, social integration, behavioral competences, cognitive abilities and problem solving (incompetence and learning disorders along with school maladjustment resulting in poor performance and/or school drop-out). The school context is therefore a crucial point both in terms of pedagogic/relational approach to identify domestic violence witnesses and in terms of agreement and coordination with families and organizations for violence prevention. School operators and mainly teachers, are culturally and professionally sensitive people establishing emotional relationships with their pupils. These elements can be further reinforced in order to educate and sensitize the child against abuses. DIRECT TARGETS: School operators in elementary and middle schools of Italy, Spain, Romania and Portugal.FINAL TARGETS: Elementary and middle-school childrenMAIN AIM: Design of a formative model for school operators to be shared at a European level in order to limit the effects of witnessing domestic violence on schools, and coordinate school interventions with the network of institutions and organizations involved in the prevention of domestic violence witnessing. SPECIFIC AIMS:Promotion of initiatives addressed to school directors and administrators, teachers and assistants in order to enhance relational and communication competences and abilities to cope with the needs of domestic violence witnesses and prevent learning disorders and school abandonment. Promotion, innovation and exchange of good practices among European partners to cope with the consequences and damage of domestic violence witnessing, poor school performance and learning disorders.Definition and implementation of teaching methods for competence enhancement in minors.Definition of communication strategies among operators, parents and stakeholders in order to protect and prevent any abuse witnessing through talking and listening to the minors. The project, lasting 2 years, will produce the following outputs:A report including a comparison among European Countries about the relationship between witnessing domestic violence and learning disorders and school abandonmentMethodological guidelines and didactical materials to train teachers and other school operators in preventing and fighting scholastic difficulties in children victim of witnessing domestic violenceA report about the participation of teachers and school operators in a pilot course of WIDE intervention model A report about the implementation of the WIDE model in the schools participating in the project. The Partnership of the project is constituted by Spazio Donna Onlus – Caserta – IT (as applicant), Istituto Comprensoriale Scolastico L. Van Bethoven – Casapulla – IT, University of Barcelona UAB – ES -, Liceul George Calinescu – Constanta – RO, Institut Escola Industrial - Sabbadel – ES, Agrupamento de escolas Dr Costa Matos – Vila Nova de Gaia – PT.
Witness intra-family violence (WIA), though poorly perceived at the social level, is a large phenomenon with serious consequences both on the psychological balance and on the adaptive capacity and social integration of the children victims. In Italy, there are about 690,000 cases, which more than 60% are cases of direct witness violence. The consequences of exposure to physical and psychological maltreatment include, in particular, the adaptive and social skills, the area of behavioral, cognitive and problem-solving skills (such as incompetence and difficulty in learning ability, difficulty in academic inclusion and low performances with consequences of school abandoning). The WIDE project launched in September 2016 and funded by the Erasmus + program aims at defining a training model for school workers to overcome the effects of child-witness intra-family violence and to coordinate school interventions with the network of Institutional bodies that operate locally to prevent and hinder the phenomenon. The school context is an important juncture in terms of pedagogical/relational approach to the recognition of child victims of VAI, as well as linking and coordination with families and institutions responsible for preventing and contrasting the phenomenon. Teachers are culturally and professionally sensitive subjects to the problem and often close to the student by important affective relationships. Strategic elements that can be further enhanced and consciously oriented to safeguard and educate the child about the abuse. The proponent who coordinates the initiative is the Spazio Donna Onlus Association, which for over twenty years in the area of Caserta, acts for hindering domestic violence. Project partners are several European public realities: • The Autonomous University of Barcelona - UAB, Spain • Liceul George Calinescu of Constanta, Romania • The Agrupamento de Escolas Dr Costa Matos of Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal • The School Comprehensive School L. Van Beethoven of Casaluce, Italy • The Institut Escola Industrial De Sabadell The project developed in four stages: the first one, completed in January 2017, produced initial research on the topic "School Discomfort from Witness Violence", i.e. the implementation of a qualitative collection of school activities on the topic of witness violence. The second phase, launched in February 2017, led to the design of the WIDE intervention model, methodologies and tools to be implemented in the classes. The third phase involves testing the course on a small sample in each partner country and will be launched from September 2017. Finally, at the end of the project, a report will be made of the model experimentation of the results achieved, thus reaching the objective of the fourth and last phase. Co-ordination and exchange activity among partner countries is also enriched by the organization of international meetings. The first was held in Barcelona in March 2017 and the last one in the city of Constanta in Romania. At the end of the project,each partner organized an event open to citizenship, to inform and raise awareness of the population.