European projects list

Family and the new generations

According to the latest report of Unicef (2017), almost 300 million children aged 2-4 experience physical maltreatment, harsh discipline and other forms of parental maltreatment within their families. In Europe, they are estimated to total about 80 million. The ERICA training programme will address issues of agency non-collaboration, seek locally defined and monitored solutions for these problems, whilst training agencies in state of the art detection and management of child maltreatment within a family. Inter-organisational disconnection and lack of adequate consultation and collaboration between agencies in addressing the needs of children at risk of or subject to violence is a great issue. Also need reliable evidence-based identification tools for preventing maltreatment are needed. The key aim of the project is to prevent and combat violence towards children, defined here as maltreatment, by building the expertise of professionals concerning minors living in families with child maltreatment risk, also in multicultural contexts. In detail: - for professionals to undertake a comprehensive training program to enhance their use of risk assessment tools and their engagement in multiprofessional working practices - to integrate a strategy which involves the civil society in the prevention of child maltreatment - to develop, pilot and evaluate a European training program

The objective is to enhance the Integrated Development Model on Community Base – realized with USADC since 2000 – at accessibility level and to spread in Khatoum State with advocacy and networking actions. Accessibility will be enhanced both in coverage and in accessibility to services by disadvantaged population, as well as in multidisciplinary approach. Synergia will carry out the monitoring activities of the project.

In Sierra Leone there isn’t a transfusion service coordinated at a central level; this project, through the building and the beginning of a National Transfusion Centre (CNT) in Freetown will be the starting point to empower this service at national level. Sustainable development objectives are: • The increase of health and of wellbeing; • Availability of quality training; • Reduction of inequalities Synergia will carry out the monitoring activities of the project.

General objective of the project is to foster the access to health services with a better possibility of assistance for citizenship of South Sudan, also with the aim of prevent migration from the Country itself and to increase life conditions of internal displaced people. The specific objective is to increase and improve some services of the Comboni Wau Hospital, which are considered as priority by Local Health Authorities: general hospital services, child and mother health services, maintenance. Sustainable development objectives are: • The increase of health and of wellbeing; • Availability of quality training; • Reduction of inequalities. Synergia will carry out the monitoring activities of the project

Data on the health status of the population has revealed that Somalia is one of the country with the worst situation in the world. The most affected group is that of children, whose access to hospitals and medical treatments is very heterogeneous. The situation is critical also for another group, that of mentally ill people, due to the persistent presence of civil wars and instability that has affected the country for a long time. The condition of these individuals is even worsen by the traditional local culture that supports the discrimination and social isolation of mentally ill people. Therefore, the issue of mental health in this territory is rarely addressed. Given the peculiar situation of Somaliland, the project aims at supporting the promotion of equality and accessibility in the national healthcare system and at improving the wellbeing of the population. In particular, the project is addressed to two sectors of the healthcare system, that is the paediatric department and the mental health sector.

In European Member States, use of substances is a serious issue in terms of screening, management, and correlates definition. Although the prevailing methodological attitude remains quantitative in current illicit drugs research, relevant data from clinical samples and administrative databases can just provide a rough picture of incidence and prevalence of drug use problems. At its most fundamental, the role of qualitative research into illicit drug use can therefore be envisaged as a means of understanding the lived experiences and meanings of drug use from the perspectives of drug users themselves, distinguishing how drug use patterns differ by social, cultural and economic context. The project plans to build a core, and, if any, a country-level characterization of the role of social environment in pathways to recovery and socioeconomic reintegration, using original and mostly unexplored sources. In particular, the project will address key gaps in the extant research knowledge exploring by content/ thematic analyses the role of social environment in pathways to recovery and socioeconomic reintegration.

3.3. Million people are currently living in the urban area of Nairobi, among which 60,000 are street children and an additional 22,224 underage refugees (approximately 1,600 are unaccompanied minors) living in a volatile and hostile socio-political context and vulnerable to the black market and human trafficking. In spite of the launch of Kenya Vision 2030 and the considerable SDG progresses, education, HIV, socio-economic inequality, poverty and poor institutional capacity continue to undermine Kenya’s potential. Approximately 60% of the population lives in neighbourhoods characterized by a high social and health deterioration. The institutional fragility on protection is alarming. Health, education, access to clean water and sanitation remain top priorities for the Kenyan Government, who aims to achieve social inclusion and the creation of job opportunities for the most marginalized (minors, disabled, women and refugees), in order to create fair and sustainable development. A high level of socio- economic inequality, widespread poverty and weak governance continue to undermine Kenya’s progresses, highlighting the gap in income distribution with adverse effects on social welfare. Eastleigh is a large borough in Nairobi, predominantly populated by Somali, both Kenyan citizens as well as refugees. The latter make-up approximately 26,500 (of which 622 are endangered minors5) who live in isolation, unemployment and exploitation by human traffickers. Mlango Kubwa, neighbouring Eastleigh, is situated in the Starehe sub-county and merges with the large Mathare slum, characterized by overpopulation, inexistent social services, crime, unemployment, unwanted early pregnancies, gender based violence and substance abuse. Its population has been recorded to be 38,374 (of which 14% are under 14 years old), who live in deterioration. Minors are particularly vulnerable, lacking significant family support they become exposed to the dangers of a life on the streets (crime, drugs, STDs).

In the past project “Protecting children in child protection systems – Daphne 2009-2011” aimed at the empowerment of social care providers operating in IT, RO, BG, in favor of children living in residential care, with special focus on inappropriate placement (secondary victimization) it was demonstrated that child protection systems are dominated by coercive processes, which produce a high risk for children and adolescents to experience high levels of violence between peers. The European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC 2011), in a survey on 39 members, reports that in many European institutional care centers, in spite of the presence of the explicit policy prohibiting all violent punishment, some interviewees said “a certain amount of violence can be deemed necessary in order to keep staff and other children safe, and separation from the group or isolation is still allowed as a sanction in many countries. The involvement in bullying leads to psychological problems in adolescence and in adulthood (e.g. depression for the victim; antisocial behavior and substance abuse for the bully, over and above pre-existing symptoms and genetic, familial or social risk factors for these disorders - see Ttofi et al., 2011). The project intends to Implement a Specific Program (BIC) to prevent and combat bullying in residential care settings, easily scalable up, to improve peer relations and make residential care settings more positive and safer places for children; to reduce existing bullying, by achieving better peer relations in residential care settings. The General Objective is to contribute to preventing and combating bullying in residential care settings through children empowerment and by encouraging greater collaboration between peers in 5 Countries (IT, BG, RO, GR, FR). The Specific Objective is to implement the anti-bullying BIC program in residential care settings in order to make those places safer. Detailed goals are: reducing existing bullying, preventing its development, achieving better peer relations. BIC, based on a preliminary field research as well as on existing good practices, will be founded on three pillars:

1. Standardization and high customization of the service provided: definition of a sound methodology for easy tailoring of the anti-bullying BIC program for all kind of alternative care settings.
• 2. Experiencing a non-violent environment by the care staff: improvement of skills and deeper understanding of the advantages of a non-coercive approach in managing concrete bullying situations.
• 3. Empowerment of children in alternative care with the intention of enhancing the internal self-help in peers interaction.

Children living with a mentally ill person are at a significantly greater risk to develope short and long term mental health problems or psychosocial difficulties. The lack of and need for better knowledge and training of the child care professionals is underlined by the scientific community, as well as the lack of pan-European guidelines for promoting healthy behaviour in children of mentally ill parents.

The main objective of the project is to contribute to the prevention of child trafficking mainly through training of stakeholders coming into contact with potential child victims on one hand and through empowerment of minors at risk on the other, so as to make them aware of risks and help them protecting themselves. The secondary objective is to assess our prevention strategy and toolkits, complementing existing experiences, increasing knowledge on vulnerable profiles and introducing innovative data collection methodologies which rely on the protagonism of service providers encouraging the constitution of cooperative anti-trafficking action plan between different agencies (social, educative, judicial, law enforcement, etc) working in the same field, increasing the prevention potential of the intervention strategies. The project wants to mainstream the main deliverable at European level supporting, this way, also the development of an anti-trafficking European network that includes non governmental social service providers.

From research carried out during the Rainbow project (2011) financed by the same Programme on legislation, scientific literature and through fieldwork in Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Great Britain, we could conclude that institutions should work with more commitment to respect the right to sexual and affective diversity, whereby the problem of trans/homophobia and trans/homophobic bullying (including language) remains often hidden and unchallenged. We will study family discourses, needs and strategies as well as exchanging best practices of support, in order to enlarge the debate with institutions, LGBT families, families with LGBT youngsters, families with children and youth who have been victims of trans/homophobic bullying and straight families, to create spaces and conditions for dialogue or lobbying for positive change in the direction of "breaking the silence" on LGBT issues and to train and sensitise adults especially, but not only, in the education system. The objectives of RAINBOW HAS, in continuity with Rainbow, can be detailed as follows:

• Expanding the knowledge about stereotypes and about homophobia and transphobia, through studying families´ discourses.
• Identifying, analysing and exchanging best practices of services and materials of support for families and individuals with LGBT members or members who suffer(ed) from homophobic and transphobic bullying.
• Promoting respect for diversity and pushing for a trans and homophobia-free environment at school and in the family.
• Making citizens aware of the obstacles and difficulties that make trans, gay and lesbian individuals’ lives difficult.
• Understanding and identifying the main obstacles and resources for creating a legitimate space for LGBT issues in education, in each country and at European level.
• Creating spaces and conditions for dialogue or lobbying for positive change in the direction of "breaking the silence" on LGBT issues.
• Identifying strategies to create effective gay-straight alliances, especially among families´ associations at European level.

The main goal of the project is to define an effective multidimensional intervention programme aimed at improving the integration of unaccompanied foreign minors, ensuring their needs and interests, strengthening both their individual social networks and new form of cooperation within and between services and stakeholders. Unaccompanied minors is a target at high risk of social exclusion and with specific needs which must be regularly reviewed (with a precise attention also to those minors requiring special care, protection or treatment for their physical or mental health). The primary purposes of the project are:

• to elaborate a knowledge-based intervention model to improve helpful practices both of on-going special needs assessment (in order to elaborate coherent life-project for each minors) and common family tracing procedures (in order to map familiar relationships as possible care resources to sustain positive paths and wellbeing and/or to promote family reunification);
• to provide minors with appropriate opportunities of training and education, social and leisure activities, participation in cultural life of the context where they live, increasing the opportunities of interaction with their peers and adults of the host society, including with those belonging to the same national or cultural group in order to provide occasions for the minors to live their own culture, ensuring the respect for diversity together with the promotion of the integration in the collective life
• to build a permanent transnational cooperation within professionals, stakeholders, social workers and all other figures who work with unaccompanied foreign minors to define international measures, to share positive practices concerning the integration of unaccompanied foreign minors.

ESCAPE project aims to foster a transnational knowledge exchange on peer and street violence evidence-based contrast and prevention practices addressed to street living/working children-adolescent with migration background and or belonging to minorities. The project aims also to define an East-West platform development between mainly "new" and "old" EU Member States to foster transnational strategies for promoting effective programmes to prevent and contrast street and peer violence and risk behaviour related to harmfull lifestyles.

The project connects EU gay and lesbian associations, schools, media professionals promoting the rights of children and young people to their sexual identity and who fight against homophobia, in order to study stereotypes and challenge them with educational tools. An action-research targeted to education professionals (teachers mainly, but also educators of informal settings), as well as to children and young people, the final beneficiaries.

'Drugs Overdose Kills One European Per Hour' (EPHA, 2008) - an alarming but reasonably accurate reflection of the most recent reported European figures (EMCDDA, 2009a). This simple headline however does not account for the complex nature of the overdoses reported or the various comorbidities associated with non-fatal overdoses (Warner-Smith et al, 2002). A number of the fatal overdoses reported in the European reports have occurred alongside the presence of other substances e.g. alcohol, benzodiazepines, cocaine which raises important concerns relating to the influence of poly-drug consumption on fatal overdoses (EMCDDA, 2009a). The toxicological reports add weight to the need for interventions which can address these complex needs. Individuals who take an overdose may in some instances receive health care for substance misuse. However evidence is clear that treatments themselves do not necessarily change the behaviours which put them at higher-risk of fatal overdose. ORION aims to utilise an e-health tool in an innovative approach to raise awareness of factors which influence risk overdose in a European population identified as high-risk. By developing a decision analysis model it is possible to identify personalised risks of subsequent overdose and utilise a targeted approach to provide health care to improve awareness and understanding.

TRIP aims to develop at transnational level a prevention and harm reduction approach targeted to the combined use of licit and illicit substances (poly-drug use) by young people in recreational settings, including the finalization of theoretically and empirically validated guidelines for harm reduction and prevention project building and tools for monitoring the project effectiveness and assessing the short-term impact of the interventions delivered. TRIP also aims to further develop the experience and knowledge collected during the project “Prevention of poly-drugs addiction and reduction of drug-related harms programs for young people in recreational settings” - JLS/ DPIP/2007-2/001 where the same TRIP partnership studied 20 EU good practices in prevention and harm reduction projects in recreational settings by empirically operationalize and test the knowledge, the methodologies and the tools previously just theoretically developed.

According to Lisbon objectives in education and training and under the assumption of the important role that schools have for integration (as stressed in EU CBP for immigrant integration policy), considered that valorisation of human capital is a primary asset not only for social integration issues, but also for a knowledge-based competitiveness benefit, in particular in time of economic downturn and labour market difficulties, the proposal, focusing on secondary education (11-18 years old students) aims to improve comparative knowledge on good practises of assessments and recognition of knowledge, skills and competences of migrant students entering and exiting the education system, in order to adapt teaching skills, to avoid the placement of migrant children in lower than their age-appropriate grades and to support new forms of knowledge certification useful for job research and mobility. The project wants also to promote an effective mutual exchange at translocal level between educational staff to share experiences and to identify common criteria to disseminate good practices in assessing and recognizing of migrant students competences and to improve equity and wellbeing in education, involving also migrant families.

The project aims to promote social inclusion of young care leavers in the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine through public-private partnerships. The project expect to achieve: increasing knowledge about constraints suffered by young care leavers, existing services in their support, challenges still to be faced and potentialities to be developed by Non State Actors and Local Authorities in each country; improving operational capacities of Non State Actors and Local Authorities in pursuing their mission; implementing effective supporting services for 600 young care leavers by Non State Actors and Local Authorities; increasing Non State Actors and Local Authorities influence on local and national decision making processes affecting young care leavers’ destiny.

The main aim is to contribute to locally develop effective social policies aimed to promote social inclusion of young people leaving child protection residential settings (such as institutions and community based services).
The operative objectives are:

• to offer policy-makers and social service providers evidence based on ad hoc transnational social experimentation to evaluate the possibility to introduce in their respective child protection systems the professional figure of the "social intermediary" able to support (before and after) young people leaving residential settings to approach the new challenging social context;
• the improvement of the quality of services for care leaving.

The project has the general objective of expanding the knowledge-base on the available services of each geographical area, exchange experiences and good practices, creating a set of self-assessment indicators on the quality of the services, with a European scope. Besides, in Lombardia Region: testing of the set of indicators and selection of criteria for the accreditation of the regional services targeted to minors victims of violence.