Allies - Developing Teachers and Parents Alliance for early Violence Prevention in pre-School

The international ALLiES–project (EU-Daphne), coordinated by Women’s and gender studies in the University of Oulu, Finland, aims at constructing and piloting a holistic, gender sensitive measure for preventing violence for 5-7 year-old children. In addition, during the project 3 questionnaires or means for measuring- for teachers, parents and the school health care personnel – will be designed for recognizing and preventing violence among children. Expertise among school personnel, parents and child welfare team will be developed in order to recognize, prevent and intervene violence that children face in school and day care. In the activities, special attention will be paid to especially vulnerable groups at school: children with social, emotional and learning difficulties, as well as handicapped and immigrant children. Allies –programme will be piloted in Oulu, in Reykjavik and in Parma in autumn 2011.
This presentation focuses on description of the projects implications in prevention of violence. In the prevention of violence in schools, it is important to recognise power structures among children and hidden, normalized violence, which may lead to systematic bullying. A holistic, long-term approach is also crucial in creating an effective intervention.