The Project „Act, Connect and Transform for the World Peace” (ACT 4 Peace) aims to guide the educational policies of the 5 EU partner schools in a unified manner, in connection to promoting peace and its values. The school curricula do not include a specific school subject concerning the education for peace in neither of the 5 EU states. There is neither a clear unanimous approach at the EU level concerning the implementation of education for peace in schools nor any international partnerships regarding this issue. Through specific activities, our project meets the common need to actively involve the youth in actions that are oriented towards promoting non-violence, tolerance, cooperation and solidarity among people. Properly supported, the students can become important resource people in their schools and community to manage conflicts, to defuse frictions, to facilitate the specialized intervention for those with risk of social exclusion or belonging to vulnerable groups. The purpose of ACT 4 Peace is to design a unified action plan for promoting peace and pro-social behaviour by developing an international network of Clubs for Peace, consolidating students’ conflict-management competences and undergoing relevant activities in order to obtain school success and optimal integration in the community. Objectives: 1. Organising a Club for Peace in each partner school, with unified principles, programs and activities, starting with the first project year, to strengthen an appealing and stimulating learning environment (positive learning environment); 2. Training a min. of 20 mediating students in each partner school by participating in specialized courses in the field of conflict management in the first project year. 3. Training and developing peace leadership competences for a min. of 20 students from the 5 partner schools by participating in discourse, reasoning and debate courses in the second project year. 4. Promoting and strengthening the culture for peace in the partner schools by developing the international network of the Clubs for Peace and supporting their activities for min. 3 years after creation. Estimated palpable results: 1. The network comprising the 5 Clubs for Peace, with common principles, action plans and activities, contributing to the development of a friendly and motivating environment and offering students alternatives for spending qualitative free time; 2. 20 mediating students trained to intervene in managing conflicts in school and in the community (Peace Agents); 3. Trained and practiced competences in the fields of discourse, reasoning and debates for min. 20 students and acknowledging them as peace ambassadors (leadership for peace); 4. A culture of peace manifested throughout the activities of the ACT 4 Peace network, acknowledged by the partner schools and anchored to the current policies in the field at the European and international level. We estimate the involvement of at least 150 participants per partner school (120 high school students, 15 teachers, 15 representatives of the local community and/or specialist in the field of education for peace). The students would be members or collaborators of the Club for Peace, being interested in the volunteering activities and having leadership skills in order to ensure the continuing of the activities and their multiplication. Main Activities: - 5 LLTs on the themes: „A History of Peace – the 20th Century”, „Conflict Mediation in School”, „Discourse and rhetoric techniques in Public Speech”, “The Academic Debate – Leadership for Peace”, “Innovative Approaches for Promoting Peace”; - the design of a Peace Charter; - the TwinSpace with all the relevant resources and a practical handbook for the education for peace; - „Our Moment of Peace” – creativity contest advertising for peace through artistic messages; - activities within the ACT 4 Peace network: volunteering, the Peace Month, research, debates, meetings with local minorities. The quality and the impact of the activities will be assessed periodically, to ensure the optimum conditions to model young people in the directions imposed by the project theme. On the short-term, students will be involved in activities of personal development, self-awareness, interrelationship and creativity enhancement. On the long term, they will develop a harmonious personality, becoming representative, active, responsible and competent members, genuine leaders in their communities. By means of the TwinSpace and of the free and open access to all materials, by promoting the activities and by disseminating the results we intend to transfer the Club for Peace model in other schools and to extend the ACT 4 Peace network in other states. Our project fully exploits the opportunity to use the immense cognitive and affective potential of students, their creativity and enthusiasm, becoming promoters of positive social changes. Thus, our aspiration, the universal peace, will be unanimously seen as a priority.
The aim of the Project „Act, Connect and Transform for the World Peace” (ACT 4 Peace) was to guide the educational policies of the 5 EU partner schools in a unified manner, to promote peace and its values. At the moment, the school curricula do not include a specific school subject concerning the education for peace in neither of the 5 EU states. There is neither a clear unanimous approach at the EU level concerning the implementation of education for peace in schools, nor any international partnerships regarding this issue. Through specific activities, our project met the common need to actively involve the youth in actions oriented towards promoting non-violence, tolerance, cooperation and solidarity among people. Properly supported by teachers, the students have become important resource people in their schools and community in order to manage conflicts, to defuse frictions, to facilitate the specialized intervention for those with risk of social exclusion or belonging to vulnerable groups. The purpose of ACT 4 Peace was to design a unified action plan for promoting peace and pro-social behaviour, by developing an international network of Clubs for Peace, consolidating students’ conflict-management competencies and undergoing relevant activities in order to obtain school success and optimal integration in the community. The objectives were met and palpable results are: 1. A Club for Peace was organized in each partner school, with unified principles, programs and activities, starting with the first project year, to strengthen an appealing, positive and stimulating learning environment; 2. 105 mediating students were trained in the partner schools to intervene in managing conflicts in the school and in the community, and they are the Peace Agents who will help solve possible future frictions; 3. Peace leadership competences in the fields of discourse, reasoning and debates were developed for 103 students from the 5 partner schools. Their successful participation in discourse, reasoning and debate courses in the second and third project year deems them worthy of being peace ambassadors in each school; 4. The international network of the 5 Clubs for Peace Culture for peace in the partner schools was developed and strengthened and their activities have been promoted for at least 3 years after creation. The network offers students a friendly and motivating environment and a valuable alternative for spending qualitative free time; 5. A culture of peace manifested throughout the activities of the ACT 4 Peace network, acknowledged by all the partner schools, and anchored to the current policies in the field at the European and international level. Throughout the project there was active involvement of at least 350 participants per partner school (320 high school students, 15 teachers, 15 representatives of the local community and/or specialist in the field of education for peace). The students were members or collaborators of the Club for Peace, being interested in the volunteering activities and having leadership skills in order to ensure the continuing of the activities and their multiplication. Main Activities: - 5 LLTs: „A History of Peace - the 20th Century”, „Conflict Mediation in School", „Discourse and rhetoric techniques in Public Speech”, “The Academic Debate - Leadership for Peace”, "Innovative Approaches for Promoting Peace”; - A Peace Charter was designed by the students, and they used their debating skills to create a final version of it; - The TwinSpace has all the relevant resources and a practical handbook for the education for peace; - „Our Moment of Peace" — was a creativity contest advertising for peace through artistic messages; - The activities within the ACT 4 Peace network were: learning and development activities, volunteering, the Peace Month, research, debates, meetings with local minorities, study visits. The quality and the impact of the activities was assessed periodically, to ensure the optimum conditions to model young people in the directions imposed by the project theme. On the short-term, students were involved in activities of personal development, self-awareness, interrelationship and creativity enhancement. On the long term, due to their participation in the project activities, they developed a harmonious personality, becoming representative, active, responsible and competent members, genuine leaders in their communities. By means of the TwinSpace and of the free and open access to all materials, by promoting the activities and by disseminating the results we intend to transfer the Club for Peace model in other schools and to extend the ACT 4 Peace network in other states. Our project fully exploited the opportunity to use the immense cognitive and affective potential of students, their creativity and enthusiasm, becoming promoters of positive social changes. Thus, our aspiration, the universal peace, is and will still be unanimously seen as a priority.