European Crime Prevention Award and EUCPN Best Practices Annual Conference 2009
Project Entry Form
The theme for this year’s European Crime Prevention Award and EUCPN’s Best Practices Annual Conference is "Preventing crime and victimisation among children and young people. Current and future challenges – school, cyberspace and recruitment to criminal groups".
The following are some areas that the projects may focus on:
- Crimes committed by and against young people in cyberspace. Online crime and how to prevent it.
- School as an arena for immediate and long-term prevention.
- Recruitment to criminal groups. How to turn young people away from a life of crime.
The list is not exhaustive. The projects may address any question relevant to this year’s theme.
Please complete the attached form (the boxes are expandable). Note that the last point is for a one-page description of your project.
As we intend to compile a visual presentation of the entries, we kindly ask you to provide material for this (videos, photos, leaflets, etc)
Entries should be in English, but may be accompanied by a version of the entry in the national language if wished. Each country may enter one project as its ECPA entry and up to two other projects to be presented at the conference. Projects should be submitted only through the National Representatives.The full ECPA rules may be found at www.eucpn.org
Deadline for entries is October 1st 2009.
Send your entry or entries to: bpc.ecpa2009@bra.se
If you have any questions, please contact Lina Nilsson at lina.nilsson@bra.se
ECPA/BPC 2009
Please answer the following questions in English.
1. Is this your country’s ECPA entry or is it an additional project? (Only one ECPA entry per country plus up to two other projects.)
The project is Hungary's ECPA entry.
2. What is the title of the project?
"Veled - Érted" - "With You - For You" crime prevention model project.
3. Please give a short general description of the project.
The so called "plaza-phenomenon" is widely known and significant in Hungary. Unlike the practice in most other countries, in Hungary plazas (shopping malls/centers) are built up in the city centers, therefore these provide an attractive place within easy reach for youth to hang around, drift and spend their time there even when hanging out from school. These youngsters often gather into groups and start to commit offences and cause damages. According to the data recorded by the police in 2007, the number of young and child offenders in Győr town has risen. It is getting more and more popular that children and young people hang around in plazas or in their surrounding instead of going home or being at school.
Facing this phenomenon and recognising its significance, the regional organisation of the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service Association (West-Transdanubian Region) delivered a project to cope with this problem between November 2008 and July 2009. It was aimed to create a long-term cooperation between the project partners with a view to reduce occurrence of child and juvenile delinquency.
Young people between the age of 12 and 18 formed the basis of the target group, who hang around in plazas, keep away from shool and commit offences. They suffer a lack of own community spaces and alternative means to spend their freetime.
4. Please describe the objective(s) of the project.
The overall objective of the project was to reduce the occurrence of juvenile delinquency and victimisation through settling useful freetime activities and supporting services to a specific place which young people usually attend just to hang around and be out of control.
In order to reach the general objective, the specific goal was to improve and widen the existing early warning system and involve new cooperating organisations (such as the ones of the for-profit sector), furthermore, to make the members of the target group interested in spending their spare time in a useful way.
5. How was the project implemented?
5.1. Methods and adequacy
An inter-sectoral cooperation was created in the project, in which professionals of several organisations - with different relationships to the youth - could share their experiences and perform common work with providing the space and the possibilities for freetime activities and supporting services at the same time.
As a complementary service, the project used voluntary peer helpers to recruit and involve the target group effectively and promote the successful implementation of the programme through personal contacts and explicit modelling. This element of the project provided the members of the target group with the possibility to improve their social skills and to build up and integrate themselves to their own community.The work of the volunteers was supported by ongoing coordination, motivation, team-building and supervision.
After the recruitment and preparation training of the peer helpers, the clubroom called "Colorful Space" was took over at a great opening event that was followed by two major sport events. As freetime activities, the project provided opportunity to play table football, karaoke and board games. In the clubroom Police Club activities as well as creative (e.g. handcraft activities) and self-awareness activities were held on a weekly basis. The activities were held by police professionals, the child protection professionals of the House of Children and social pedagogy university students. The latter professionals formed a network which could help those youth in need to obtain the necessary services of the youth protection system.
During the project, the deliverers paid particular attention to the communication both towards the target group/volunteers and the press. They continued recruitment (with more intense propaganda before the major events) during the whole project period: they contacted schools, distributed leaflets, addressed people directly. The press was kept regularly informed of the work and the results of the project, so those reported on the events several times, contributing thus to the dissemination of the programme.
At the end of the project an evaluation day was organized for the partner organisations and the volunteers. It was a good occasion to consider together the future perspectives and to summarize the lessons learned. A final evaluation booklet was published with a DVD supplement showing clips on the project.
5.2. List of project elements
Preparation
- Definition of the goals and tasks of the professional team.
- Recruitment and professional preparation of peer helpers.
- Preparation of the professional team.
- Recruitment of volunteer students.
Implementation
- Maintaining motivation of the volunteers, the peer helpers, coordination of their tasks, supervision.
- Coordination of the partners participating in the inter-sectoral cooperation, consultations, learning about and using the working methods of each other, harmonising different working methods.
- Recruitment of the target group, learning their preferences.
- Establishing the order, operation and profile of the clubroom.
- Organising major events.
- Setting up multi-level internal and external communication channels, feedback.
- Administration, documentation.
- Professional orientation, learning.
Closing
- Evaluation of peer helpers and volunteers, feedback.
- Evaluation of professional team, feedback.
- Summary, reports, publication for the ending of the project, summary DVD.
- Securing sustainability: specially tailored tasks for volunteers, motivation, release.
6. Were partners involved in planning and/or development and/or implementation of the project? If so, who were they, and what were their roles?
An exeptional feature of the project was that it created a wide-range cooperation of partner organisations, and managed to involve not only non-profit but for-profit actors too: the director of the shopping centre joined the project and provided venue to set up the Colorful Space Club as well as the territory of the plaza for the major events. Such a cooperation between NGOs and the business sector rarely occurs in Hungary but this project brought up the appearance of CSR (corporate social responsibility) in crime prevention activities.
The project was seen as unique in Győr town as well, since there has not been such a large cooperation before in crime prevention mobilizing so many (13) local institutions at the same time.
The project was led by the West-Transdanubian Region Hungarian Maltese Charity Service Association (NGO).
Cooperating partners were:
6.1. Governemental Organisations
- Crime Prevention Department of the Police Headquarter of Győr-Moson-Sopron County: provided a coordinator at the team consultations, a professional instructor at the trainings, and held weekly Police Klub in the Colorful Space club.
- National Public Health and Medical Officer Service, Western Transdanubian Regional Institute: provided a coordinator at the team consultations and a professional instructor at the trainings.
- Children’s Welfare Center: provided two coordinators at the consultations, two street social worker instructors at the trainings and a professional worker in the Colorful Space club (stand-by duty).
6.2. Non-Governmental Organisations
- House of Children (NGO): provided a coordinator at the team consultations and weekly creative activities in the Colorful Space club and on the sport programme.
6.3. For-Profit Sector
- Győr Pláza Shopping Center: provided room for the Colorful Space club, a coordinator at the team consultations, security service at the opening event and at the second sport programme.
- Árkád Győr Shopping Center: provided possibility for the observation field-work within its territory (the peer helpers could obeserve the youngsters at the plaza in order to choose the ones to be invited in the project).
6.4. Educational Institutes
- Prohászka Ottokár Ursuline Public Education Center: provided a coordinator at the team consultations and at the events.
- Széchenyi István University, Department of Social Work: provided a coordinator at the team consultations and the events, coordinated the field-work of the students, and provided two professionals at the training.
- University of West-Hungary Apáczai Csere János Teacher Training College: Institute of Recreation and Health Promotion, Institute of Orthopaedagogy, Institute of Social Education: delegated students to the programme
- Kossuth Lajos Primary School, Krúdy Gyula Secondary School, Szabadhegyi Centre of Public Education, Hungarian-German Kindergarten, Primary School and Grammar School, Pálffy Miklós Vocational School of Commerce: provided youth protection professionals for the team consultations, the recruitment of the target group, the event related services, and for keeping contact with the peer helpers.
During the implementation of the project all the institutions and partner organizations did their best to perform their duties with the utmost diligence.The discussions on the specification, continuos supervision of the duties, orientation, sharing information on the latest outcomes and the follow up formed the basis of the success of the project. It was an important experience that in many cases the originally planned duties had to be customized in the practice. Therefore flexibility and adaptability of the participating organisations during the implementation were essential for the smooth operation.
7. How did you build in plans to measure the performance of the project?Has the project been evaluated? How, and by whom?
7.1. At the elaboration of the project plan, the deliverers' goal was to ensure that at least 15 from the 20 volunteers involved from the beginning of the programme would actively participate in the programmes, as well as at least 5 volunteers would remain active after the ending of the project. The deliverers also identified the targeted numbers of the participants, they planned with the participation of at least 10-10 persons per occasion in the club activities and the monthly film clubs, and the participation of at least 20-20 persons per occasion in the creative activities and the sport events.
The efficacy of the volunteers' work as peer helpers was supposed to be measured through the supervision.
7.2. The project was evaluated at the end by the two groups of the project staff:
The volunteers kept recording their experiences that served as a basis for feedback on their work. The evaluation by the peer helpers meant that they formulated what it meant to them to participate in the programme, to identify the difficulties the faced, and to reflect about continuation. Methods of evaluation were as follows:
- Recalling experiences (short film, photos, team play)
- Evaluation play
- Filling in a questionnaire
On the closing day the professional team listened to the summary report of the project manager and the project assistant, then the team members evaluated themselves on the basis of directed questions. The cooperating partners are actually preparing a common methodological brochure on the experiences of the cooperation and the effeciacy of the programme.
7.3. The project was continuously monitored and measured by the professionals of the Ministry of Justice and Law Enforcement.
8. What were the results? How far were the objectives of the project achieved?
All the objectives of the project were achived on the planned level, some results were performed even beyond the plans. During project the need for a more detailed and extensive evaluation occurred.
8.1. Results in facts and figures:
- visitors at the opening event: more than thousand people;
- visitors in the Colorful Space club (from 13 February until 6 May): 594 persons;
- creative activities: 10 times with 63 participants;
- Police Club: 11 times with 95 persons;
- sport day: twice, estimated number of active participants: 110 persons (per time);
- self-awareness activities: 4 times with 39 persons;
- volunteers: 25 persons from 5 institutions;
- partner consultations: 12 times on 10 premises;
- peer helpers involved in theoretical training: 42 persons;
- peer helpers involved in practical training: 35 persons;
- active peer helpers: 25 persons;
- students involved: 36 persons from 4 specialities of 2 institutions;
- helpers involved in the service (peer helpers + students): 71 persons;
- persons regularly attending the service: 61 persons;
- project closing publications: 2 (1 for internal use, 1 for dissemination);
- "With You – For You" DVD;
8.2. A close cooperation was established between the partners, that went beyond the original project period.
8.3. There has been a change in the leisure habits of the target group.
8.4. The volunteers gained professional experiences and new knowledge.
8.5. Volunteering gained a wider reputation.
8.6. Based on the evaluation both by the participant organisations and the volunteers a closing publication was prepared. A summary DVD recalling visually the programm "With You - For You" was prepared.
8.7. The project was qualified exemplary and classified as a "good practice" by the Crime Prevention Department of the Ministry of Justice and Law Enforcement.
8.8. The project proved to be sustainable: in July 2009 the project had been institutionalized - due to a grant its operation is provided for 3 more years, and the project's profile will be completed with harm reduction activity.
9. Are there reports or documents available on the project? In print or on the Web? Please, give references to the most relevant ones.
Detailed information of the project is available in print in Hungarian. Website publication is rich as well but it is only available in Hungarian however the film and pictures are enjoyable in all languages.
We succeeded awakening media interest with the objectives and the content of the programme, partly by our inter-sectoral cooperation, with the peer helpers, or the starring guests.
Our greatest success is a long-term support by the national channel tv2 to our programme.
The project enjoyed also the support of the local media: two regional TV channels and a city newsportal reported on the programmes regularly. Some examples:
10. Please, write a one page description of the project:
The "plaza-phenomenon" is widely known and rather significant in Hungary. Unlike the practice in most other countries, in Hungary plazas (shopping malls/centers) are built up in the city centers, therefore these provide an attractive place within easy reach for youth to hang around, drift and spend their time there even when hanging out from school. These youngsters often gather into groups and start to commit offences and cause damages. According to the data recorded by the Police in 2007, the number of young and child offenders in Győr town has risen. It is getting more and more popular that children and young people hang around in plazas or in their surrounding instead of going home or being at shool.
Facing the phenomenon and recognising the significance of the problem, the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service Association delivered a project to cope with this problem. The project applied a complex, "two-track-approach" as it focused on providing freetime activities for the youth on one hand and on improving and extending the cooperation of professionals working with the youth in adressing this specific issue on the other hand. The efficacy of this complex approach was enhanced by applying the methods of peer-helping and voluntary work.
The basic philosophy of the project was that reaching young people through useful freetime activities and settling programmes, services and communities to the place where the drifting youngsters can be found - may it be a plaza, a park or any other kind of public space - might provide an adequate means to reduce juvenile delinquency and victimisation in an indirect way.
Within the framework of the project (between November 2008 and July 2009) the targeted youth could use the freetime possibilities, such as table football, karaoke and board games provided in the Colorful Space Club. Besides these possibilities the youth could participate in activities such as the Police Club, self-awareness and creative activities and sport programmes. During these activities the youth were assisted by professionals and voluntary peer-helpers.
The motivation of the volunteers and the peer helpers was maintained, their activities were coordinated and their constant supervision was provided during the whole term of the project. The partner organisations performed an intensive and effective cooperation partners and discussed the actual questions at meetings held every second week in order to facilitate the freetime possibilities and activities for the youth and to recruit and coordinate the work of the volunteers and peer helpers.
The innovation of the project lies in the appearance of the Corporate Social Responsibility through the participation of the for-profit organisations in the project, and thus in the field of crime prevention. Taking advantage of voluntary work is also an innovative feature of the project. Trying to reach youth through settling services right to the place where they can be found means also a new approach.
As the result of the project, the number of damaging has reduced, a community space for the youth and a wide-scale and long-term cooperation between the partner organisation has been set up. During the term of the project 594 youngsters have visited the Colorful Space Club and 71 volunteers and peer helpers participated actively in the work with them.
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