REVIS project in Croatia - the first national workshop

Project REVIS - Responding to peer violence among children in schools and adjacent settings, continues with its activities. High School students and facilitators from all around Croatia gathered for the first time face to face at the first national workshop on the 17th of May in The Hotel International in Zagreb.

So far in the project, 2 classes from 10 schools had workshops about social and gender-based norms and peer violence.  After exploring and understanding negative and positive norms, the students are about to create campaigns that target preventing violence. The goal of this national gathering was to introduce them to methods of researching peer violence in their schools and local communities and familiarize them with using those results in creating their innovative solutions and campaign prototypes.

20 students (2 from each school) accompanied by 18 facilitators participated in the national workshop. The trainer was Anamarija Vuić, a psychologist experienced in youth work on the peer violence topic and with a job experience in a marketing agency. Anamarija kept the students and facilitators interested and focused through various games, group work activities, demonstrations, and campaign examples: they were engaged and motivated to think further about developing their campaigns.

After introductory ice-breaking activities, the trainer helped the students with exploring and defining various aspects of peer violence: what does it include, who is involved, where does it happen, how does it start, etc. The students were introduced to potential research methods and the importance of choosing target groups, ie to whom they want to address their campaign. In this part of the workshop, the students had the opportunity to design prototypes of different target groups: parent, teacher, peer, one who experiences violence, the perpetrator of violence. They tried to put themselves in their shoes and think about what type of message would best reach them.

During the first part of the day, the facilitators had a different task: to discuss and exchange their worries about the project, the needs they have, resources in their schools and communities and to make a plan for the summer activities.

After lunch, the facilitators joined the students and together they learned about successful campaigns on violence from Croatia and abroad that Anamarija prepared for inspiration and motivation. In the last part of the day, Vanja Blumenšajn joined, a creative director of a marketing agency Señor. He introduced the key points, tips, and tricks about developing a campaign.

The students had a task to create their first campaign ideas which they presented and got feedback. In this way, they had a chance to experience a creative process and now it’s their turn to transfer this new knowledge to their colleagues.

This was the first live, face-to-face national activity. The facilitators got a chance to meet in person and the students from different schools had a chance to share their experiences and realize that in different parts of Croatia and different school programs, the challenges and difficulties of young people are very similar. Also, they helped each other raise awareness about their internal strengths and available resources in their schools and communities.

At the end of the day, the students and the facilitators expressed satisfaction with meeting each other and high interest and motivation for the next steps of the project.

The second national workshop is planned for the end of August when the students will bring their campaign ideas. They will get feedback and support for their further development and creation. We are looking forward to the entire process of creating and learning together as well as the final result and launching the best campaign.