Good practices

EESPIP - European Educational Support for Prison Officers Interacting in Prisons Learning Context with Woman and Minorities

EESPIP aims to open up to prison staff learning opportunities related to professional development an environment associated not with learning: the prison. The project delivered content and activities for prison officers to further develop their professional training, related to their professional environment.

The thinking behind this project is about the importance of human relationships in shaping a learning career. On a personal dimension prisoners spend the vast majority of their time with or around prison officers.

Although, the initial and also current continuing training of prison officers does not include the perspective of prison officers and education agents and that’s the need the project proposes to respond to.

Prison staff and volunteers reaching out for those groups need to reinforce their communication skills to distinguish profiles and put forward the most suitable personal strategy to accompany the inmate on the path to a better future.

Year(s): 2018 - 2021

Target group(s): 1) Prison staff, officers and volunteers working with inmates; 2) Inmates with special focus on female inmates and minorities

Website or other online channels: https://www.eespip.eu/

Methodology

The project foresees 4 phases:

1. project will engage on a multinational survey, gathering demographical statistics, conditions, etc, of vulnerable populations in EU-wide prison systems, reaching a factual approach on causality between international and local needs and priorities- concludingin the mapping of priorities.

2. Priorities will help create a body of knowledge to coach volunteers into the specific needs, to get a synoptic view of the challenges facedand where to direct efforts.

3. The feedback from 1^st and 2^nd phase will be used to popularize the experiences of the first group of staff and volunteers to create a recruitment base for next generations.

4. In the final phase a roundup will be made of what has changed according to the priorities concluded in the survey on the first phase and so measuring the overall success of the project.

Type of product

Paper-based material Course / Training

Brief description of the outcomes

EESPIP project results are:

1. Guide to enable and endors women and minorities education in a prison environment

2. "Prison as Learning Environment”, mentoring support on situational awareness

3. Support on the mentoring of prison officers

4. Vocational training for prison staff

5. Support for the structural reinforcement of the educational system in prisons

Impact on target groups / Transferability potential

1) Short Term Results (mainly at the learning level: awareness, knowledge, skills, motivations):

- 20 staff / volunteers trained in developing research activities specialized on the prison staff;

- from the 5 National Administrations of Penitentiaries that will be involved in the project activities, an average of 2 % of the central staff, management staff, HR staff, and 1 % officers with custodial duties and officers with administrative duties will be involved in the research activities. Also an average of 0.5% from the prison population will be asked to fill in a survey about their perception on the role of prison officers in prison learning.

- 50 prison managers piloted within 8 hours training about the importance of prison education and how to support from management point of view its implementation in one's prison. Specific modules will be developed for 50 prison officers and for 50 representatives of training providers responsible with initial and continuing VET of the prison officers (companies, NGOs, universities, colleges, state authorities - depending on country specificities).

2) Medium Term Results (action: behavior, practice, decisions, policies).

- "The role of Prison Officer in Supporting Prison Education" Concluding Report & Recommendation Paper promoted and supported by the National Administrations involved in the project. Also we plan to have the training package made up of the 4 modules developed, accepted for testing in at least 1 to 2 % of the prisons in each partner country.

3) Long Term, moving towards Outcomes (consequences: social, economic, environmental etc.).

- the EESPIP outputs to be recognized and accepted at European level as good practice and study case on developing the prison as a learning institution, where each participant contributes to the learning experiences of the others, and where the prison officer is a key element is supporting the delivery of prison education by the professionals in the system, to the inmates.

Promoter of the initiative: ISC – Institut Saumurois de la Communication

Country: France

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