ESCAPE “European Street Children Anti-Violence Programme and Exchange” JLS/2009-2010/DAP3/AG/1190

1. ESCAPE“European Street Children Anti-Violence Programme and Exchange”JLS/2009-2010/DAP3/AG/1190 Brussels, 11 December 2012 Final Conference Rebecca Zanuso (Synergia) With the support of the EU Commission Daphne III programme

2. Monitoring, evaluation and validation With the support of the EU Commission Daphne III programme

3. Methodology • Monitoring and evaluation of the training targeted to the children participants and the trainers. • Same surveying tools in all countries. • We collected 58 monitoring forms, 1260 valid questionnaires filled in by the children and 134 from the trainers. • Final validation: short questionnaire submitted, together with the programme, by partners to local experts. With the support of the EU Commission Daphne III programme

4. Monitoring: main findings • Initial plan accounted for seven different thematic units per country, but partners were free to arrange the schedule according to the specificities: for example, in Lisbon, the implementation was delivered to three different target groups. • Distribution of operators across thematic units was part of the internal decision making process, at discretion of individual partners. • In Italy, where educators were predominant, and Portugal there were no psychologists. A part from Italy, all the projects involved at least one social worker. • Partners’ trainer/trainee average ratio ranges from 1 trainer every 4,6 children in Cluj Napoca, to 1 trainer every 2,7 children in Lisbon PIEF Programme. • In the report you can find country sections. With the support of the EU Commission Daphne III programme

5. Evaluation: the opinion of children and youngsters • Fun: 90% of positive answers. Most fun thematic units seem to be “Communication” and “Problem and conflict resolution”, the latter considered also useful by 100% of respondents. • Regarding sessions’ learning potential, children stress the importance of debating emotions and how to manage them, especially anger. • 90% thinks they will use contents in their daily life. • Suggestions: more time to practice (games, theatre, etc.). • Overall opinion is very positive: very good for over 48%, good for almost 46%. With the support of the EU Commission Daphne III programme

6. Evaluation: the opinion of trainers Opinion on single aspects connected to the evaluated thematic unit (range: “1”=very good; “2”=good; “3”=poor; “4”=very poor) All aspects are positively evaluated, especially the objectives of the thematic units. The statistical regression indicates that the factors that significantly influence the overall satisfaction are the first two. The overall opinion of trainers is positive, although less enthusiastic than the children’s and youngsters’. In fact it is very good in almost 19% of cases and good in over 70% of cases. The most satisfactory units for trainers are “Interpersonal relationships and respect for the difference”, “Communication” and “Assertiveness and decision making”, with under 6% overall dissatisfaction. With the support of the EU Commission Daphne III programme

7. Evaluation: the opinion of trainers Specific difficulties: • some activities were too complex, especially when they required the explanation of difficult concepts, or the filling up of written texts; • the presence of children and youngsters whose first language was not the language used during training created communication barriers; • the movie activity, like for children, also for trainers is considered controversial; • keeping up the attention and motivation of children and youngsters, especially in the theoretical parts; • dealing with time constraints. With the support of the EU Commission Daphne III programme

8. Final validation • A questionnaire for external experts asked an opinion about: relevance of the programme for the objectives of the project; clarity of contents; appropriateness of exercises; responsiveness to the needs of the target; most positive and most negative aspects of the toolkit; suggestions fro improvement; overall evaluation. • 14 questionnaires were collected. • Generally speaking the opinion is quite good, although different people liked different aspects/units. • Common suggestions for improvement, which have been acquired and used to modify and finalise the programme regard: • Homogeneity (age and gender) of the target; • Semplification of some exercises; • Adaptation to specificities of each context/target; • Freedom about duration of sessions and exercises; • Some recommendations about multiprofessional staff composition and involvement of parents and local communities. With the support of the EU Commission Daphne III programme

9. Thank you! Rebecca Zanuso rzanuso@synergia-net.it www.synergia-net.it/en/ With the support of the EU Commission Daphne III programme