Prevention and combating cyber bullying and internet violence among youth

Prevention and combating cyber bullying and internet violence among youth
– manual for youth workers –
1. Introduction
1.1. What this manual is about
This manual is developed as part of the project: “Prevention and combating cyber bullying and
internet violence among youth”. Manual presents 10 educational workshops, each in duration
from 45 to 90 minutes. Workshops are developed in a way that they can be used by trainers,
facilitators, pedagogues, teachers; in training courses, educational sessions, camps, school
classes, extra curricula activities etc.
Flow of the workshops is developed in a way that participants first learn about identities, what
is sex and what is gender and how sex and gender are part of what we are and how we see
ourselves – our identity. In second workshop participants talk and discuss what is love and can
someone love same sex person. In this workshops participants have a chance to go through
different stories and see what love means from different angles and points of view. Important
aspect of the manual is to better understand transgender and transsexual people, thus the third
workshop is developed with that aim. We have used guided story for this purpose. In fourth,
fifth and sixth workshop participants are learning more about violence, different forms of
violence and cyber/online violence and how to be aware and what to do if someone is bullying
them on internet. Last four workshops in the manual are developed for participants to
understand the cycle of violence, think about different communication strategies and how those
strategies are connected to violence and violence prevention, accessing situations and
developing skills for resolving conflicts and to discuss about breaking the silence when it comes
to online violence but also other forms of violence.
1.2. Non-formal approach to the education
In this manual we have decided to use non-formal approach to education. Why? Because we
think that experiential way of learning (experiencing a situation in a form of reading a story,
analysing some story(ies), or doing a role play) is a best way for a person to acquire new
information, and later think about her or his attitudes. That’s the basic concept behind
workshops presented in this manual. We’ve developed a flow of workshop in which you start
with an introduction to the topic for participants. Then you give some smaller participatory
tasks to participants. At the end participants have a chance to discuss about the given topic and,
with your help, make a conclusion.
1