Ritaharju School: The City of Oulu, FINLAND
Hjallastefnan organisation, Reykjavik, ICELAND
The Province of Parma, ITALY
According to Italian laws defining roles and competencies of local authorities, Province could be defined as a 2nd level authority, intermediate between Region and Municipalities. The general mission of the Province is to promote balanced social, economical and cultural development in the whole provincial territory. In order to reach this goal, all the Italian provinces have exclusive and specific competencies in various fields, including in particular for our case the promotion and the co-ordination of programs and activities concerning social issues.
All the competencies are developed trough an administrative/political system which, beside a number of civil officers responsible for daily management of the above listed fields, it provides for a Provincial Council and a Provincial Board co-ordinated by a Provincial President. Present President is Mr. Vincenzo Bernazzoli.
Demographic and Geographical features: The province of Parma ( 433.000 inhabitants ) covers a 3.449 Km2 area (equal to 15.6 % of the Emilia Romagna region) composed of three main sub-areas: a northern area is part of the Po valley; a central hilly area and a southern mountain area that is part of the Apennine chain. The five most cities/towns located in this area are Parma ( 182.000 inhabitants ), Fidenza ( 25.000 in.), Salsomaggiore Terme ( 20.000 in ), Collecchio ( 13.000 in ) and Noceto ( 11.500 in. ).
Since 2006 the Province of Parma, in particular Social Policies and Equal Opportunities Department, has realized many projects about gender violence: studies and action researches inside teenagers’ relationships; working courses for operators; an international public seminar; info-books for operators and citizens; working activities with classes of secondary schools about knowledge and consciousness of gender violence.
The councillor of this Department is Marcella Saccani, the office is headed by Dr. G. Annoni e Dr. M. Pinardi.
The operative referent of gender violence issues inside the Province is Alessia Frangipane. She is the project planner of Parma partnership in ALLIES. She works in project about gender violence, migrants issues, prostitution and trafficking.
The school partner is the Institute “E. Guatelli” of Collecchio. The institute includes many schools of different levels, located in Collecchio, Ozzano Taro and Gaiano. Four are the nursery schools, three in Collecchio ("Don Milani", "Allende" and "Maria Montessori") and one in Ozzano Taro (Attilio Derlindati). Three primary schools, one in Collecchio (Collecchio cpl.), one in Ozzano Taro (Alessandro Manzoni) and one in Gaiano ("For the dead of all wars"). A secondary school of first level (D. Galaverna) in Collecchio, where there is the head administrative office.
The head master of the Institute is Michele Salerno, he directs all schools and participates to the ALLIES project.
Silvana Stecca is a teacher of “Attilio Delendati” nursery school and she participates to ALLIES taking part in working seminars, local parents meetings and piloting the tools within the chosen class.
More information about the Province Parma partnership:
www.provincia.parma.it
www.sociale.parma.it
www.pariopportunita.parma.it
The International Observatory on Violence in School, FRANCE
International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), NETHERLANDS
The Department of Health Sciences, Mid Sweden University, SWEDEN
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Educational Sciences, SWEDEN;
Child protection centre Oldenburg, GERMANY
The Child Protection Centre Oldenburg (“Kinderschutz-Zentrum Oldenburg”) is a special institution of the youth care system in the North-West of Germany which offers helps to the problem areas child maltreatment, neglect and sexual violence. It puts his offers to boys and girls, male and female adolescents, fathers and mothers and reference persons as well as experts, institutions and all interested persons. The offer of the Child Protection Centre takes two departements: the departement „Vertrauensstelle Benjamin“, an advice centre, and the departement "prevention". The advice centre is the only special institution in the region for sexual abused boys. The department of prevention has a main focus on prevention of sexual violence with boys in schools.
 Dr. phil. Michael Herschelmann is the manager of the Child Protection Centre and works as a (social) paedagogue in the prevention department. He has developed different sexual violence prevention projects for boys (and girls) at different schools during the last 12 years launched by the child protection centre Oldenburg. There he has aqcuired experiences in this field, doing eg. a lot of teacher training, parent information meetings in schools (also especially and only for fathers) and had a lot of contacts and cooperation with partners in schools. He worked in two Daphne-Projects (Daphne I and Daphne II) with colleagues in Spain, Italy and Denmark. Beside this and additional - because he is very interested in research - he is a member of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Women and Gender at Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg where he did his doctoral thesis. So Dr. Michael Herschelmann comes from the youth care system but work a lot in schools to prevent violence and does additional some research.
Cardiff University, Wales, UK
State Crisis Centre, RUSSIA
Tatiana Ward (Dyachenko) PhD in Psychology is a practical psychologist who worked for 13 years in a crisis center for women and children in Russia. She carried out research about gender violence, developed a hierarchical theory of violence, elaborated programs to prevent violence toward children in school and in family, and developed a program of therapy for child victims of violence. Her materials were published in different bulletins and journals. She led the seminar "Positive Approach in Pedagogy" and conducted the program "Girls and Boys" in school groups to prevent gender violence, for many years with great success. She participated in several international projects about domestic violence and gender violence in school groups including the AWARE- project and the Daphne -project. Recently she married a wonderful American guy, moved to the USA, Arizona and is going to be a teacher of Psychology in a community college.
The University of Osnabrück, GERMANY
University of Oulu, Department of Pediatrics, FINLAND
 Irma Moilanen is Emerita Professor of Child Psychiatry, University of Oulu. By medical training, she is both a Pediatrist and a Child Psychiatrist. She was the chair of Clinic of Child Psychiatry at the University Hospital of Oulu from 1986 to 2009, and was Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry at the University of Oulu from 1986 to 1992, and Professor of Child Psychiatry from 1992 to 2009, when she retired from both positions.
As a pediatrist and child psychiatrist she has been especially active in research concerning children´s neurological and psychological development, including human relationships. In studies on child psychiatric disturbances she is actively collaborating in multiprofessional working groups, including pediatric neurologists, psychologists, logopedists, occupational therapists and teachers at nursery schools and at primary schools. She has been participating numerous longitudinal epidemiological child and adolescent psychiatric studies and thus required good expertise in measuring childrens´ and families´ mental well-being. She has research collaboration with scientists from USA, UK, Germany and Nordic countries
She is the vice chair of the executive committee of Child Protection organisation Friends of the Young in Oulu.
Kajsa Wahlström, Klokskaparna AB, SWEDEN
http://www.kajsawahlstrom.se/
 Here I am, Kajsa Wahlström, author of the bestselling book Flickor, pojkar och pedagoger (UR). It´s a very special book about my research on equal rights for girls and boys and how the teachers and adults treat the children very different (but believe they are equal).
I've worked more than 25 years in different kinds of schools, most of the time as a headmaster. For the past years I've worked in my own company Klokskaparna AB as a consultant educating, having courses and giving lectures to all kind of leaders for all kind of groups (preschools, schools, pedagogs, universities, companies, church, sportgroups).
I use a lot of happiness, my creativity, and all my experience on gender work. All my life has been with CHILDREN and people around them. Having spent time in schools I´ve been very interested in HOW the adults treated the pupils. As a scout and a girl guide leader I started to work with equal rights (without knowing it). It was just natural, things I was brought up with. I spent three years as a tour guide on Crete, Greece, and had the possibility to study haw people behave in their different moods - both when happy and when in stress.
Nowadays my speciality is in educating and making things happen. I like to use the results of my research to make pedagogs more aware of what they do and what they can do better, what really do the girls and boys learn? equality? power?
I think very strongly that equal rights are connected with nonviolence or violence. This means that every leader has a very big responsibility and a very good opportunity to “teach non violence", teach by learning themselves, by thinking and feeling and by using equal behavior.
I started to develop my preschools in 1995 based on my own special thoughts and reserch. My Work together with my pedagogs made big headlines in the newspapers in Sweden. Radio interviews and TV-programs increaced the intresst even more all over Sweden. It was little unexpected, after all from our point of view we were just doing our job...
One of the greatest moments in my work was the day I met Margret Pala Olavsdottir. In 1998 We had our first WONDERFUL meeting. She really practices equality that moment. With warmness, awarness and very politely and gently she gave me powerful feedback on my work. Afterwards I felt very strong and could move mountains…Anywere I went I did more research and developed my tool further and further.
Even on a summer beach we can all see how two children come back from a fishing tour in a small boat. One child has a lot of fish in the bucket – that means hard work and a happy child. The other child has less fishes but is also happy and satisfied until the adults value them differently. The adults lean their head on one side, put their hands on the knees and say to the child with a lot of fish: "Oh so nice fishes, did you like to have tee in the boat?" Then the adult stood up and spoke with strong voice to the child with less fishes: "Oh my God, you are a really big fisher man. How many are there? How heavy are they? You must be very strong with all these big fishes." Guess which one is a girl and which one is a boy? This gives very different power. This is dangerous, because when you protect your power to keep your role it gives a good place for violence to grow.
In 2010 was co-writer in a a book on dyslexia. Thank God for my dyslexia - my best parts is my dyslexia.(UR) “normal and dyslexia is also different power and gives place to violence.
My three children are wonderful and support my work. We are very close and they know by experience how important equality is. My spouse works with peoples energies and health. In the summer time we spend time together in a small and simple summerhouse 500 meters from the seashore in the middle of the nature.Now in August the nightsky is starlit and when we brush our teeth in the evenings outside, under the big beautiful sky, it gives me a strong feeling of belonging in the universe.
That is also what children want – to belong.
Feel welcome to contact me , there is a lot more to know…
Kajsa Wahlström, kajsa.wahlstrom(a)telia.com
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