BIСPE RESEARCH AND TRAINING STUFF JOIN “EUROPEAN UNION AND COUNCIL OF EUROPE WORKING TOGETHER TO SUPPORT THE PRISON REFORM IN UKRAINE (SPERU)” PROJECT
On December 3rd, 2021, in the framework of the Joint Project of the European Union and the Council of Europe “European Union and Council of Europe working together to support the Prison Reform in Ukraine (SPERU)” (hereinafter - the SPERU Project) presented the interim results of project participants.
The event was attended by Olena Vysotska, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine, the leadership of the Department and representatives of the Interregional Departments for the Execution of Criminal Punishments of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.
One of the speakers was Yevhen IVASHEV, National Expert of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine within the SPERU Project, Head of the Department of Training, Occupational Safety and Design Technologies of the Bila Tserkva Institute of Continuing Professional Education of SIHE “UEM” of NAES of Ukraine.
The strategic goal of the SPERU Project is the full-scale implementation of dynamic security in penitentiary institutions. The key elements of dynamic security are the use of prosocial modeling and motivational counseling by specialists in the implementation of socio-educational and psychological work with individuals who demonstrate antisocial behavior and express relevant beliefs.
One of the topical areas of cooperation between the Bila Tserkva Institute of Continuing Professional Education of SIHE “UEM” of NAES of Ukraine and the Joint Project of the European Union and the Council of Europe “European Union and Council of Europe working together to support the Prison Reform in Ukraine” is training employees of institutions of vocational (vocational-technical) education on methods of prosocial modeling and motivational counseling in working with destructive behavior of students. Teachers of V(VT)E institutions emphasize that they are often forced to face manifestations of destructive behavior of students. This, in turn, negatively affects the quality of educational process and its direct participants. Under such conditions, there is a practical need for teaching staff of V(VT)E to learn the basics of applying the above methods. In addition, it is important to remember that the vast majority of penitentiary institutions have vocational (technical) educational institutions. The specificity of such institutions is that their students are minors and adults sentenced to imprisonment.
During the project, Yevhen Ivashev presented a specialized course "Prosocial Modeling and Motivational Counseling in Dealing with Destructive Behavior of Students", the results of its testing in training courses with different groups of students. Modern effective methods of prosocial modeling and motivational counseling are universal and can be used to work with anyone, including teenagers.