LEARN AND SHARE FORUM
Beyond the school boundaries: a community development perspective to build resilience
17 May 2019, Hotel Tirana International, “Consortium”, Tirana
Albania’s C/PVE efforts rely on a number of contextual advantages such as the religious tolerance as a highly respected societal value and tradition, the effective cooperation between the state and religious communities, the respect for religious freedom and so on, just to name a few. As foreseen in National Strategy against Violent Extremism”, the regulatory framework for “schools as community centers” (SCC)[1], represents another effective advantage for PVE efforts which is instrumental for building community resilience through multi stakeholders partnerships at the local level. This approach helps to address all forms of violent extremism (religious and non-religions drivers) of violent extremism in Albania.[2]
With the support of the US Embassy, Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) has been piloting the project “Advancing school boundaries towards resilient communities” in the municipalities of Cërrik and Peqin.
“Tomorr Sinani” and “Zihni Magani” high schools in these municipalities have embarked on the road to develop self-sustained models serving as communitive centers. Based on shared responsibilities and cooperation among educations, local government and law enforcement institutions local partnerships have developed including civil society, youth and community leaders.
Such partnerships have served to draft comprehensive annual SCC action plans, to boost interaction among the institutions and the community to address the community’ concerns, to establish and encourage youth-led initiatives, sport and arts clubs, to increase vocational educational opportunities, to support families to engage in the school’s decision-making and activities.
IDM and its partners in Cërrik and Peqin municipalities are pleased to share their experience and lessons learned from this initiative. This will help consolidate the work in this municipalities and motivate similar actors from other municipalities build on this model. Special focus in these efforts take youth-led initiatives.
This event is bringing together all involved stakeholders from different municipalities of the country and senior representatives from central institutions.
[1] Introduced by the Ministry of Education in 2013
[2] See IDM 2018 assessment on VE in Albania http://idmalbania.org/sq/study-violent-extremism-in-albania-november-2018/
*Simultaneous interpretation Albanian-English-Albanian will be provided.
Please confirm your attendance at [email protected] .
PROGRAM |
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| 10:00 – 10:30 | Registration and welcome coffee |
| Building local ownership through strategic multi-stakeholder approach
Using schools as community’s development hubs can bring together many partners that offer a wide range of support and opportunities to students, youth, families and communities. To make this happen, local stakeholders need to share the same vision and local ownership which paves the way to joint responsibility and cooperation. This session is sharing experiences as perceived by our local partners in this effort from both municipalities. The second part of this panel is dedicated to messages and remarks by central institutions representatives and the donor. 10: 30 – 10:40 (moderated by IDM) – Key impressions from local partners
10: 40 – 11:10
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| 11:10 – 11:20 | Comments and discussion |
| 11:20 -11:30 | Coffee break |
| 11:30 – 12:45 | WORLD CAFÉ – COMMUNITY PRIORITIES AND SOLUTIONSYouth plays an important role while working with their peers in their local communities. This session will bring best practices and experiences from youth leaders in different municipalities which will share their perspective on how they can contribute and provide various types of services and support to the youth/students, families and the community.
This session is conceptualized in a “World Café” format which will create a safe, welcoming environment for local actors (local government institutions, high schools, students, parents, teachers, police officers, youth leaders) of the “School as community center” model from the municipalities of Vora, Selenica, Peqin, Shijak, Fushe-Kruja. The participants will be encouraged to connect ideas, perspectives and to set local priorities on how the SCC model can be successfully designed and implemented in the own municipalities. This experience will serve as a positive model that can be replicated in other municipalities in Albania. Motivational speakers:
Co- Moderators:
12: 15 – 12:45 Presentation of the working – group priorities |
| 12:45 – 14:00 | LUNCH
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