Peace Weeks – let’s give Peace a Chance
Peace Weeks for children and young people have been successfully organised at Schlaining Castle since September 2007. The target group are pupils in grades 3-13 from all types of schools throughout Austria. The project was honoured as a UNESCO Decade Project in 2009.
Violence prevention, conflict and peace skills, respectful communication, team building - the need for all of these was recognised and was a key reason why the Peace Weeks were launched in 2007. The idea for the project came from the Burgenland Ombudsman for Children and Young People. The project was designed as a cooperation between ACP employees and experts from the field (mediators, peace and experiential educators) and the Regional School Board for Burgenland. The University College of Teacher Education (PH) Burgenland and a number of thematically related initiatives are now also permanent co-operation partners.
Although violence at school is not uncommon, it is certainly not destiny
There are ways and means of dealing with it - the only question is in what form. It is important to differentiate between prevention (‘prevent, avoid’) and intervention (‘intervene, get involved’). The Peace Weeks see themselves as a prevention project for pupils.
The aim is to prevent violence at school before it breaks out and to resolve conflicts, which are naturally part of any social interaction, in a non-violent way. To this end, there are methods that can be experienced and learnt - and it is precisely the transfer of knowledge and skills that is at the centre of the Peace Weeks.
As part of a school project week under the guidance of experts, pupils are given an interactive and reflective, age- and knowledge-appropriate approach to their own feelings, limits and possibilities, to their fellow human beings and to the central topics of conflict and peace. Special topics such as bullying, gender-based violence, integration, globalisation, etc. are also offered as special modules. In addition, a peace week can also be used for team building to strengthen the class community or as a week to get to know each other (especially for 5th and 9th grade) - with results that have a very positive impact on everyday school life.
For teachers:
As part of the Peace Weeks, a systemic skills training is organised for accompanying teachers in parallel to the pupils' sessions. Here, content and methods derived from the Peace Weeks are taught which - if used regularly in everyday school life - can have a positive influence in the medium term.
Target group:
Pupils in grades 3-13 from all school types & accompanying teachers
Prerequisites:
none
