Educational Mobile Application for Prevention of Domestic Violence Erasmus Project

Project Title

Educational Mobile Application for Prevention of Domestic Violence

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 : Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing; Gender equality / equal opportunities; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Globally, the reports of domestic violence have increased remarkably since social isolation and quarantine measures came into force due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Domestic violence is a broad term, which includes the wide range of violations perpetrated by current or ex-partner or the violence is against children, parents or elderly. It affects on the well-being of the whole family and results serious physical, mental, sexual-and reproductive health problems. Social- and healthcare professionals need more knowledge, skills, and education to identify and intervene in domestic violence. Additionally, there is need to develop professionals´ digital methods and competences, which are highly needed during the pandemic times, such as COVID-19.

DOMINO-project aims to provide knowledge and education for current and future social- and healthcare professionals in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) for prevention and early intervention of domestic violence by developing an educational DOMINO mobile application. Longer term aim is to improve the physical and mental well-being and care of victims and perpetrators by improving the early intervention and prevention of domestic violence.

The project includes researchers, HEI teachers, students and working life professionals from social- and healthcare sector from four partner countries who will take part in the project. The consortium consists of Turku University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Turku Mother and Child home and shelter association (Finland), University of West Attica (Greece), Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Lisboa (Portugal) and Riga Technical University (Latvia), which all are responsible for different activities.

There are three main objectives that lead to achieving the main results of the project. The first objective is to provide the best available knowledge and practices in prevention of domestic violence by developing a pedagogical framework. The second objective is to improve the accuracy and to-the-point content of materials in training and education for current and future social- and healthcare professionals by creating an open access online course (5 ETCS). The third objective is to provide easy-to-use digital tool for prevention and early intervention of domestic violence for current and future social- and healthcare professionals by creating an educational DOMINO mobile application, which will be freely available.

The results of the project are pedagogical framework, online course and DOMINO mobile application. The pedagogical framework is developed through mapping the educational needs of domestic violence of social-and health care professionals and HEI teachers in each participating country through expert panel discussions. The results of mapping are analyzed by thematic content analysis. DOMINO online course (5 ECTS) is developed on the basis of pedagogical framework. The online course also establishes the content of the final product of the project, DOMINO mobile application. In addition, the development of the mobile application includes the functional and technical settings as well as the piloting of the application by current and future social- and healthcare professionals.

The DOMINO-project ensures that the developed content of the mobile application meets the needs and is relevant for working life professionals as well as for the education in HEIs. The project is strongly linked to working life, providing solutions in the interface of education and workplaces and ensuring that the future professionals are confronted with real life issues already during their studies and that the developed DOMINO mobile application (including the online course) is relevant for working life and feasible in HEIs. The project uses innovative pedagogies and digital methods for teaching and learning. The DOMINO mobile application will be flexible, utilizable and multi-functional tool for social- and healthcare students, teachers, working life professionals and different organizations in pandemics, such as COVID-19, or in other altering situations.

The ultimately beneficiary in the DOMINO-project are the families suffering of the domestic violence. By enhancing the accessibility of knowledge and education of early intervention and prevention of domestic violence among current and future professionals, the care of victims and perpetrators as well as their physical and mental wellbeing will be improved in the longer time.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 212795 Eur

Project Coordinator

TURUN AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY & Country: FI

Project Partners

• ESCOLA SUPERIOR DE ENFERMAGEM DE LISBOA (ESEL)
• Turun ensi- ja turvakoti ry
• PANEPISTIMIO DYTIKIS ATTIKIS
• RIGAS TEHNISKA UNIVERSITATE