The “STEPs” project aims to give opportunities to prisoners, to free them from ignorance, social awkwardness and "disability" and to offer them support and restorative experience to escape from the vicious circle of marginalization, crime and unemployment. The way to break this cycle is to foster confidence, to live by using legal means and to avoid the recurrence, so as to choose education and training before their release and through this facilitate job finding and avoid marginalization, unemployment and eventual criminality. The “STEPs” project’s partners will work together to create an innovative training material, which will be used in prison schools, rehabilitation centers and other related structures. This material, used by trained teachers or trainers, could contribute in supporting the reintegration of prisoners into society, the primary objective being that the detainees will be freed from negative emotions, such as anger, aggression, rejection, disappointment etc. The "STEPs" will give prisoners the necessary help to carry on as equal citizens, with rights and obligations and it will provide prisoners with support before and after the release, combined with career counseling, learning social and life skills and preparing the person for the transition from prison to the community. The "STEPs" plans to provide the necessary specialized learning support and the adaptation of the learning material emphasizing: a) the characteristics and needs of the detained adult learner, b) the obstacles encountered in learning and c) the accomodative and inspired role assumed by the adult trainer in the learning process mainly as a person rather than a knowledge institution. The project methodology links in two separate innovation processes, which fully support the selected priorities. The first one is based on the field of systemic / postmodern counseling which touch at the consultative process as a language - interactive event. It considers that the speech in the context of speakers' interactions has manufacturing capacity and perform social action. The person is characterized from a dynamic displacement on the voices' positions, when the interpersonal interaction happens and the speech is produced. Furthermore, it contains elements of systemic research, highlighting the circularity at the process of interaction. The second one regards on the creation of a dynamic virtual reality system (VR), consisting of rooms, narrative stories, videos, photographs and newspaper articles. The administrator, through this system, creates dynamically the environments within the user acts, either by reusing already registered materials, or by adding new ones. The management system would be able to • insert, update, delete materials from its database, • manage materials such as rooms, narrative stories, videos, photos and articles from newspapers, with their metadata • create and manage stories. Each story, within the user acts, will consist of a title, a room, a narrative and a number of materials from the system database • manage materials in many languages. The environment will be in English, as it is easier for the partners to translate into their mother tongues • manage statistics. These statistics will reflect the user's reaction regarding the room and the materials specifically what objects he has seen, how long and in what order. All the above materials will be recorded in a relational database and will be retrieved dynamically based on parameters indicated by the operator to the system each time. The involved partners CPIA 1 and the Second Change School of Larissa will implement the VR rooms in prisons' schools, will test and note down the evaluation as result of the implementation. CIP and Kerigma will implement the VR rooms to ex-prisoners groups, supported by specific social structures. EEPEK will create the 6 VR rooms according Kerigma's narrations' booklet. The above activities will be disseminated and be exploited under CIP directions and actions. EEPEK as the promoter of the project, is responsible for the managment, the implementation, the financial management and the cooperation with the National Agency (IKY). EEPEK will manage the project implementation and partners' contribution. 5 transnational meetings would help on this activity. Steering committees' proposals will guide the evaluation activities of the project and will work encouraging the decisions and the actions. Approximately, 490 persons will benefit from or will be target of the activities organised by the project, such as regional social authorities, observatories or resources centers, training centers and funders of professional training, prison schools and directorates but also social faculties, organizations involved in the support of ex-prisoners, regional authorities and publics bodies, municipalities, publics decision-makers, regional mental health authorities, social sector and professional bodies, networks on social webs, researchers.
S.T.E.Ps project “Supporting Ties in the Education of Prisoners” A project aiming at Facilitating prisoners’ Transformation The successful transition of (ex-) prisoners from prison to community requires their support, education and training both in prison and in the community. Detainees, who receive both individual and group counseling and ongoing support and training, as well as general or vocational education, have been shown to have reduced recidivism rates and higher employment rates, findings namely that highlight the need for combined support and training. Prisoners, in order to "make good use" of their sentence and see the period of confinement as a "second chance" to acquire skills and qualifications in order to better manage or cope with life in general, will have to work within themselves, with their mindset and spirit. According to research, the change (namely the breaking of the vicious circle of marginalization, crime, etc.) is marked by a shift of positions of the subjects (perceptions, principles, values, etc.), from those that the prisoners possessed in the beginning to more flexible forms, including the multiple voicing. In order to achieve results capable of giving prisoners the necessary supplies to continue as equal citizens, with obligations and rights, it is necessary to introduce flexible programs that will provide prisoners with support before and after release, which will be combined with career counseling, provision of social skills as well as life skills, preparing the individual for the transition from prison to community. It is clear that in this context a special role is given to educators and program managers as facilitators, animators and supporters, as well as to prisoners who act as role models and collaborators having the role of mentor. The STEPs project aims to give these opportunities to the inmate population, freeing them from ignorance, social clumsiness and "disability" and offering them support and remedial experiences to escape the vicious cycle of marginalization, crime and unemployment. The way to break this cycle is to cultivate confidence in them and in society, so that they can survive using legal means and avoid recidivism. The partners of the "STEPs" partnership work together to create an innovative training material, which - through the prison schools or the support and reintegration centers of prisoners and other related structures - will support the effective reintegration of prisoners into society, in order for the prisoners to improve decision-making ability. The innovative product of the program is based on new technologies and offers virtual reality experiences to learners and their educators.