BRIGHTER FUTURE: Innovative tools for developing full potential after early adversity Erasmus Project

Project Title

BRIGHTER FUTURE: Innovative tools for developing full potential after early adversity

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Inclusion – equity; Home and justice affairs (human rights & rule of law)

Project Summary

The European Union (EU) has defined social inclusion and tackling early school leaving as priorities, two challenges in which looked after children are particularly vulnerable. According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (ratified by all of EU member states and inspiration of their policies on childhood protection), children who are temporarily or permanently unable to live with their families –either because of circumstances such as death, termination of parental rights or displacement, or because the State has determined that they must be removed from their homes for their best interests– are entitled to special protection and assistance from the State.

Besides having experienced the separation of their first parental figures, many of these children have faced other forms of early adversity, such as abuse, negligence or institutionalization, that may have affected their development patterns in several levels, including emotional skills, learning trajectories and making sense of their life experiences to accomplish a positive sense of their selves. Scientific literature has recursively pointed out that this group presents higher prevalence of school and relational difficulties, as well as higher risk of social exclusion during adulthood. School should be for them not only a place where they feel safe and welcome, but also a space of resilience from which minimize the impact of adversity experiences and develop their full potential. However, their particularities are often unknown for teachers, misleading the interpretation of their behaviours and needs.

BRIGHTER FUTURE is a project aimed at innovation in relation to their school and social inclusion, through the training of future educational professionals that promotes the development of appropriate and complex skills that enable the improvement of sensitive and inclusive practices. BRIGHTER FUTURE adopts an innovative approach: from the category of “looked after children”, it distinguishes and addresses similarities and peculiarities of the different collectives that compose it: those who live in institutions, those who live with a foster family and those who live with an adoptive family.

The consortium of the project team is composed by three universities and four grass root entities working in the field of protection and childhood rights: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona y CORA (Spain); University of Groningen and Pharos (The Netherlands); University of Verona and Turin City Council (Italy), and PAC-UK (UK).

The project’s objectives are:
1. To provide advanced training for future education professionals to allow the development of specific skills in order to work with children and teenagers who have been temporarily or definitely separated from their families.
2. To make available to those who are already working in the educational field updating resources that facilitate the development of inclusive practices and appropriate answers to the needs of students who have experienced early adversity.
3. To facilitate inclusion in educational environments and in society in general regardless of the diversity of life trajectories and family situations.
4. To promote the development of meta-skills for future professionals and for those who are already in service for social inclusion in general.
5. To provide tools to managers and policy makers to design interventions in the education system which counteract educational and psychosocial discrimination.
6. To provide foster and adoptive parents as well as other reference figures of children and teenagers who have suffered early adversity information and resources to understand their reactions and behaviors and give them an appropriate answer.
7. To contribute to the destigmatization and awareness about looked after children and their rights.

The main expected result are a professional training module that can be included in Education degrees and professional updating courses, as well as an online library with short pieces of information for practitioners and any interested people.

The project will involve 1500 recipients through the following activities: 3 joint staff training activities; 9 local workshops; 1 summer school, 7 national and 1 international multiplier events.

In the long term, the project aims to a mentality change that allows schools become a a place for resilience.

Project Website

http://brighterfutureproject.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 214247 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Family Action
• STICHTING PHAROS EXPERTISECENTRUM GEZONDHEIDSVERSCHILLEN
• Federación CORA. Coordinadora de Asociaciones de Adopción y Acogimiento
• COMUNE DI TORINO
• RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI VERONA