Our projects: VISIONARY (2000-2003) and VISIONARIES-NET (2004-2006)

The VISIONARY project (2000-2003) was a European Commission-funded project involving five European countries – Denmark, Finland, Germany, Portugal and the UK - to create international and country-specific Internet portals on violence prevention in schools. The main aim of its successor project VISIONARIES-NET (2004-2006) that involves partners from four European countries - Germany, France, Spain and Romania - is to bring together experts dealing with different violence prevention activities in schools in five asynchronous online conferences. Furthermore the Internet portal will be extended by three further languages: French, Spanish and Romanian.

Violence in school, juvenile violence and crime have been among the major topics in many countries. Incidents such as the massacre in Erfurt, Germany in 2002, in which 18 people were killed, and teenage suicides due to bullying in Scotland in 2002, have increased public awareness of these issues..

In many countries we have a huge and constantly growing number of approaches, materials, web sites, mailing lists etc. focusing on violence and violence prevention. So, one large current problem is not a lack but rather an "oversupply" of approaches that makes orientation difficult and sometimes discourages practitioners.

Read more about the background of the VISIONARY project ...

Objectives

The broad aim of the VISIONARY project and our recent project VISIONARIES-NET is to create an environment that enables our users in different countries and with different experiences to learn from one other.

In the VISIONARY project we did not develop new concepts or approaches on violence in schools. Rather, we collected and structured information that we found on the Internet and provided a platform - the VISIONARY portal - which facilitates the search for information. Furthermore our portal aims at networking our users – teachers, parents, pupils, experts and anyone searching for information about violence in schools – at a national and international level.

The main objective of the VISIONARIES-NET project is to bring together persons engaged in different kind of activities related to violence prevention in a) online conferences that unite selected groups of experts and practitioners and b) by means of an International online community on violence prevention in school

Read more about the objectives of our projects ...

The projects

"VISIONARY" is an acronym for "violence in school – intelligence on the net - applying resources for youngsters". The development of our web site is supported by the Socrates Minerva initiative, a program of the European Commission that supports projects dealing with the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education. The VISIONARY portal was created between 2000 and 2002 by a team of about 20 people from five countries – Germany (project co-ordination), Denmark, Finland, Portugal and the UK. Apart from the portal we published the book Violence Prevention in School Using the Internet that gives an overview of violence and violence prevention in our five countries with a focus on resources that are available on the Internet.

Read an abstract about VISIONARY, an excerpt from the project`s proposal ...

"VISIONARIES-NET" is an acronym for "violence in school - initiative on the net archiving resources for European states: net of experts". The
project that has started in December 2004 builds on the VISIONARY project. The VISIONARIES-NET project is a co-operation of teams from Germany, France, Spain and Romania. The main aim of this project will be to bring together persons engaged in violence prevention in school by means of online conferences. Furthermore we extend the VISIONARY portal by three further languages: French, Spanish and Romanian.

Read an abstract about VISIONARIES-NET, an excerpt from the project`s proposal ...

Perspectives

As violence in schools and violence prevention are among the major topics of concern in countries throughout Europe and all over the world, it is part of the VISIONARY concept to include other countries in the future.

According to the VISIONARY ethos/philosophy, all of us can learn and profit from approaches and experiences in other countries. Consequently, the development of an extensive international network is an essential long-term goal of our project.