Project Active Citizens Fund – Schools helping vulnerable children

Project Active Citizens Fund – Schools helping vulnerable children

The project is being supported by the Committee of Good Will – the Olga Havel Foundation from the Active Citizens Fund. The programme promotes citizens’ active participation in the public life and decision making and builds capacities of civil society organizations. It promotes respect of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and the respect for human rights including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. Active Citizens Fund came to the Czech Republic in September 2019 with the goal to support CSOs regardless of their size and experience. It is operated by the Open Society Fund Prague, Committee of Good Will – the Olga Havel Foundation and Scout Institute. The Active Citizens Fund is financed from EEA and Norway Grants 2014–2021. With EEA Grants, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway contribute towards a reduction in economic and social disparity and the strengthening of mutual cooperation in Europe. One of the important objectives of the programme is strengthening bilateral cooperation between donor and beneficiary states through financial contributions in specified priority sectors. It supports bilateral relations between the donor states Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein and the Czech Republic.

Schools helping vulnerable children

• Program area: Active Citizens Fund
• Grant call: 2019/ACF/1/Active Citizens Fund – System grants
• Project title: Schools helping vulnerable children
• Project number: 0004/2019/ACF/1
• Project implementation period: from 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2023
• Project coordinator: Mgr. Anna Kubickova, anna.kubickova@cosiv.cz

About the project:

The project Schools helping vulnerable children aims to build a system that supports education of vulnerable children. Children who grow up in unfavorable living conditions, such as insufficient material security of the family, unsuitable social environment, mental illness of a family member or ongoing divorce of parents, are significantly affected by their environment. This can also manifest in education as a lack of concentration, lack of interest in the curriculum and very often also demanding behavior. Unfortunately, due to the many factors that can have a negative effect on children, schools do not have the capacity to provide support to all children in need. The aim of the project is therefore to pilot a three – tiered Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework in selected schools, which will ensure the support of all pupils in the school with the degree of intensity that a particular student needs in a given situation.

In addition to raising awareness about the negative impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) on children education and mental health and about appropriate approaches towards children who have experienced or are experiencing ACEs, it is necessary to support schools in the systematic implementation of effective school-wide practices for responding to the specific needs of pupils with these experiences or in distress. These practices help to ensure that all pupils in the school feel safe and can reach their full educational potential.

Thanks to long-term international cooperation, ČOSIV is in close contact with experts dealing with similar topics in various countries around the world, with whom we were able to consult on the selection of the most suitable long-term solution for the Czech Republic. PBIS framework is gaining in popularity worldwide and in other European countries. This system began to emerge in the USA 30 years ago and for more than 20 years it has been systematically implemented in various ways (sometimes at the state level) in local schools (over 26,000 schools in 2018), but also in some prisons or in within families. At the same time, the PBIS system is constantly evolving in response to many high-quality studies on its effectiveness. Countries that are currently using or implementing PBIS include Canada, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway and many more. The Czech Republic therefore has the opportunity to adopt the most up-to-date form of the framework, which effectiveness and efficiency has been proven by countless studies.

More information at: www.pbiscr.cz