Violence against children remains a major concern in Europe, affecting children in all member states, in varying forms and degrees of severity.
Evidence from multiple sources shows that various forms of violence are present in schools in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo and Romania. While progress has been made in each national context in terms of legislation, policies and practices related to preventing and combating violence against children, these measures need to be expanded to enhance integrated child protection systems focused on the best interests of the child.
The current project - CARING 2.0: Preventing and responding to violence in schools - aims to contribute to strengthening and streamlining integrated child protection systems. The project aims to prevent and address violence in schools in a multidisciplinary manner, including its gender dimensions, and to promote the participation of children, especially those in vulnerable situations, based on their fundamental rights.
In order to address violence against children in an integrated manner, we will intervene at multiple levels of the social context in which children live, using a range of complementary methodologies, such as:
- The CARING curriculum for school staff and students,
- “I Support My Friends”, a peer-to-peer support programme,
- Training package for multidisciplinary teams on trauma-informed approaches
- Operationalisation of inter-institutional referral mechanisms at school level.
A Regional Children and Youth Advisory Board (CAB), alongside four national CABs, will be supported and developed as tested mechanisms to ensure real and relevant participation of children in decision-making processes that affect their lives.
Overall, the application of these methodologies will create a solid basis for the promotion and dissemination of best practices in the field of child protection. The project also builds on the successful experience of the older transnational projects, REVIS and (the first) CARING.
Partners alongside Terre des hommes Romania are the Terre des hommes delegations in Hungary, Greece, Kosovo, as well as SAPI and the Roditeli Association (Bulgaria) and Brave Phone (Croatia)
Implementation period: 1 March 2025 – 28 February 2027
