Foundation Wings of Hope is continuing with the implementation of the project “Cognitive – Behavioural Treatment Program for violent behaviour in school children” with the support of In Fondacija which focuses on improvement of social inclusion of children and youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). This project is part of a broader program which is oriented towards prevention of peer violence in primary schools (PS) across BiH.

The goal of the project is to raise awareness amongst all actors that are part of a school process about peer violence, its causes and negative consequences. Additional goal is early identification and treatment of such behaviour and providing psychological support to victims of violence.

Besides individual work with children and parents, this year the project also includes additional activities. With these wider school setting will be taken into consideration in solving issue of violence.

Studies about peer violence in schools almost consistently show that it is less likely for violent behaviour amongst children to be present in schools in which children feel accepted and appreciated. That is why large part of our activities is directed at creating a supportive school environment for all students.

This goal is partly being achieved through additional education for teachers about importance of developing a positive climate in classes and higher cohesion amongst students. This education is also dealing with the importance of developing social and emotional competences in children as one of the educational goals. These competences concern all attitudes, knowledge and abilities of children that enable them to more easy recognize and manage emotions, establishe and maintain quality relations with others and as well to make decisions effectively (Payton, 2008). Inclusion of social and emotional learning in regular school programs can be a very efficient way to prevent and lower the possibilities of peer violence becoming a problem. As well, it contributes to higher school achievements and children’s engagement in learning. This altogether leads to decrease of negative interactions between children.

Second activity is Peer support groups, which aims at creating more positive and safe environment for children. These groups are organized groups of school children that are taking part at special educational workshops and then carrying out anti-bullying activities in their schools. Their goal is to raise awareness amongst other children about peer violence, to campaign for anti-bullying values, provide direct support to victims of violence and empower children who witness the so-called bullying situations to react.

Peers notice bullying before than adults and victims of it will rather share their problems with their peers. That is why implementing anti-bullying strategy that includes activities such as peer consulting, solving conflicts through mediation and intervention in bullying situation can significantly alleviate the process of solving such issues amongst children and it can provide information that are needed for improvement of the approaches to the problem of peer violence in the future.

Enabling the young to work together, share information and develop values that object violence, along with active support of the teachers and other school staff, contributes to creating more integrated school environment and more inclusive school community that consequently produces more secure and supportive framework for development of young people.

Four PS from Sarajevo Canton are included in the project. They are all known for their active contribution to improvement of educational process. These are PS ”Džemaludin Čaušević”, PS ”Čengić vila I”, PS ”Avdo Smajlović” and PS ”Fatima Gunić”.