About the webinar:
Children and adolescents learn in a continuous relationship with a caregiver or a significant adult. Also they experiment, learn and develop properly through safe interaction with each other. They learn about themselves, about others, about the world, about limits, values and beliefs, about their needs and how to satisfy them, about how to solve a personal or a social problem and in adequate environment they learn how to take into consideration the perspective and the feeling of the other one.
For a part of children abusive or neglecting relationship with their caregivers, chaotic and unpredictable responses like the parents leaving or not paying attention to their needs teach them soon that “they are bad”, “the world is unsafe”, “you are on your own” and do not trust anyone!”
Lack of important skills (self-regulating, cognitive skills, problem solving) and lack of parental or significant adult support bring them to develop so called “criminogenic needs” (antisocial beliefs, affiliation to antisocial peer groups, violence, substance abuse). The result of which is school abandonment, academic failure, low quality life and a career in crime.
The best programs in schools and juvenile correctional settings aim to create a learning environment for children and adolescents that can give them the experience about safety and meaning in relationship with adults which they did not have at the proper age. New results coming from neurobiology, accumulated experience in cognitive behavioural programs, experiential exercises and drama therapy techniques enlarged and improved the pool of instrument for parents, teachers, counsellors and probation and correctional officers to offer these children and adolescents from risk groups an alternative way to build themselves a real good life.
In this webinar we will talk about the ways in which we could engage and motivate the high risk (for violent offending and antisocial behaviour) children and adolescent to learn and to practice new pro-social skills. For this purpose, you will learn how to create a meaningful and creative interaction with these children and adolescents, maintaining a safety environment, based on healthy limits, rules and consequences.
About the lecturers:
Mihaela Sasarman is an expert in education for young people at risk working in the field since 1995 in schools, orphanages, prison units for juvenile offenders and high schools. She is also trained in theatre and drama therapy and has experience in the Balkan region and in the Republic of Moldova. She is the leader of Transcena Association from Romania specialized in education through art for marginalized groups.
Andrei Chiscu is clinical psychologist and cognitive-behavioural therapist working with juvenile and adult offenders in Therapeutic Community targeting to change violent behaviours, from 1999, in Romanian, Bulgarian and Moldovan prisons, in correctional settings, was involved in caring training for the prison and probation staff and from 2009 in child care and child protection system, delivering services to risk and vulnerable group child and their caregivers (parents, CPS’s personnel) evidenced based practices of parenting and positive discipline. He is working from 2009 for Save the Children Romania.
The recording of the webinar is available HERE. The webinar summary is available to download below.