Description
The Association for the Prevention and Handling of Violence in the Family (SPAVO), along with the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Cyprus Family Planning Association and the Dias Publishing House Public Ltd, through the particular project aim at educating the adolescent population in Cyprus as well as educating the school counsellors of the Ministry of Education and Culture on the issues of “building healthy relationships”. SPAVO’s database indicates statistical significant raise of incidents regarding domestic violence. From 2011 and 2012, from all known cases the perpetrator was a child many of which abused by a member within their family. Through promotion of educational and training services, the project aims at prevention by educating people at early stages of their lives, in order to be able to identify and eliminate dysfunctional behavior through building healthy relationships. By having the activities of the project completed, the adolescent population and school counsellors will gain knowledge and increase their awareness concerning the issues of building healthy relationships.
Summary of project results
The outcome of the project benefited the adolescent population in Cyprus dealing with issues of teen dating violence, as well as, handling and building healthy and stable relationships. In addition, the project influenced the mentality and ways school counsellors and educational psychologies of the Ministry of Education deal with the aforementioned issues and provided them with a more complete skill set and understanding in order to serve their students current and future needs. The information provided and the training seminars/workshops organised were specifically targeting young people in order to provide support and a solution to personal concerns and problems of violence throughout their lives. These workshops are expected to have an overall impact in the quality of life of the target group (adolescents dealing with domestic violence and teen dating violence), as they helped them enhance their skills when dealing with such difficult situations. Overall, the project added to the development and improvement of the social, interpersonal and communication skills of the adolescent population in Cyprus and provided them with crucial and practical information for support. The provision of basic welfare services and information on how to build healthy relationships aimed to ameliorate the current situation among the adolescent population and also help their families cope better with the day-to-day difficulties that they face individually, as well as, provide them with guidance on how to react in their relationships. The overall expectation of the B-Here project was to reach approximately 350 students, in addition to, 180 school counsellors, which face or come across situations of violence. The primary target group (students, teens, adolescents), in addition to school counsellors and psychologists gained knowledge and increased their awareness concerning the issues of building healthy relationships. The project was innovative by itself because up until now, in Cyprus, the existing information provided was insufficient and the target groups had not been approached by specialised professionals in the field.
Summary of bilateral results