After Liege and Dublin, the Third International Conference on School Bullying will be held in Rome on May 10 (10 am) at the Rome Città Educativa, where experts and teachers will address new strategies to prevent and contrast bullying amongst the young.
Just over 50% of young men and women aged 11-17 have been victims of bullying or have suffered offensive or violent behaviour, especially the youngest (11-13) and women, while 19.8 % are habitual victims. Amongst older students, the most victims are in high school (19.4%) followed by 18.1% in professional schools and 16% in technical schools. This is what emerges from a report on “Bullying in Italy: offensive behaviour and violence amongst the young” published by ISTAT. Cyber-bullying is less frequent, but on the rise, especially amongst girls (7.1% against 4.6% for boys), as they are more assiduous smartphone and Internet users. How can we transform these new communication tools from “offensive” weapons into instruments capable of creating communities and stopping the phenomenon of school bullying?
The answer is provided by Sonet-Bull, a two-year project implemented as part of the Erasmus Plus Programme, that is developing an innovative social networking and peer-learning platform to share educational material, strategies and best practices, and provides instant support to the entire community that is influenced by school bullying.
After the international meetings in Liege and Dublin, the Rome Città Educativa will host the Third Conference on School Bullying on May 10 (10 am, Via del Quadraro 102). International experts will discuss innovative methodologies and tools, ranging from peer learning to crowdsourcing, to create European school communities with expertise in preventing and contrasting bullying. Participants include experts from the Italian Postal Police, Telefono Azzurro, Psy + Onlus, Psicologia&Comunicazione and the Regional Anti-Bullying Observatory of Puglia - EWTO Italia.
Project Sonet-Bull (www.sonetbull.eu) which is implemented as part of the European Erasmus Plus Programme, Key Action 2 “Strategic Partnerships” – School Section, National Greek Agency involves five partners from four European countries: Hellenic Open University (coordinator) in Greece, Inforef in Belgium, Computer Technology Institute & Press Diophantus in Greece, Fondazione Mondo Digitale in Italy, and the Dublin City University – Anti-Bullying Centre in Ireland.
