Please support our project with you vote
Kirsten Kristensen
Dear
NVC-friend
We ask for your
support in the form of a few clicks on this website
http://fonden.pfa.dk/VisSag.aspx?id=72
We are a group of
NVC-people who are working with a project to transform bullying into wellbeing
and life-enriching relations in public middle school. Our work is based on NVC
principles. To continue the work we need finance and we have applied for
up to 23.000 US$ (125,000 DKK) from PFA's Use
Life-Foundation (Brug Livet Fonden).
The
project description is in Danish, so I have made a translation into English at
the end of this e-mail. (it is made by google and a little help from me, so it
may not be perfect)
In order to qualify among the
many applicants, a project must have enough votes to be among the top 10.
Thereafter, the Fund's Board determines the projects to be supported.
We ask you to go to the link above and vote for the
project “ Fra mobning til trivsel” ('From bullying to well-being').
Instructions:
Click on “stem” ("Vote")
Enter your email address (you may give one vote per e-mail
address)
Click on “stem på dette project” ("Vote for this
project")
Then you will receive a
confirmation e-mail with a link that you need to click to confirm your vote. The
e-mail has the following wording in Danish:
Bekræft din stemme på en hjertesag
Før din stemme kan tælle med, skal du klikke på linket herunder for at bekræfte, at du har benyttet din egen e-mailadresse i afstemningen.
http://fonden.pfa.dk/VerifyVote.aspx?guid=a399d38a-a8b1-4486-b9b9-d02d5fd5b3eb&id=72?
Med venlig hilsen
PFA Brug Livet Fonden
You may vote until 5th. March 2010.
You can follow the top 10 projects on this link.
So here you can see that right now we need around 500 more votes to be among the top 10.
Please forward this email to other friends who may want
to promote our project. We need every vote we
can get!
We are very enthusiastic about the contribution we
might make towards our shared dream of peacemaking skills for the young
generation.
Warm NVC greetings from
Association Life-Enriching Communication (Livsberigende Kommunikation)
Kirsten Kristensen
Tlf. (+45) 40 35 09 55
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
FRA MOBNING TIL TRIVSEL
FROM BULLYING TO WELLBEING
Bullying is a cry for help; the project will develop a
toolbox to deal with bullying for 4th-6th grade.
In the Christmas TV series 'The Pact' Danish viewers got insight into
what is reality in many of its schools: Devastating bullying that teachers and
parents often know nothing about and which they find themselves powerless with,
when they finally become aware of it. Unfortunately,
reality easily surpasses fiction.
Not only bully victim, but also bully and all those who witness bullying, might
be marked for life, says the latest research. The task of changing bullying
culture can seem enormous.
Wellbeing is
a prerequisite for learning.
When the schools manage to create well-being, it appears that all children
benefits, both those who are specially gifted, those with learning
difficulties, and especially the vulnerable children from homes with alcohol,
illness, death or other special difficulties.
For children who have problems at home, it is especially important that school
is a place of wellbeing and life-enriching relations.
Consolation
to the victim and scolding to the bully are widely used actions by bullying. In serious cases,
supported by information from school to parents about their child's
inappropriate behavior, so they can continue the scolding at home - and then
one can wonder whether this will support the bully’s capacity for compassion?
The compassion and empathy, which prevents children from bullying others.
In an environment that focuses on children to behave “properly”, where children
“should” not tease each other and where they “must” be social and nice to each
other, this culture often creates a pressure on the kids - they want to receive
confirmation that they are good enough - they devote significant resources to
avoid scolding and penalties - and they crave praise and recognition from the
adults and each other.
In this environment it can be enormously difficult for children to relax and
feel confident that they can be themselves, and here arises bullying therefore
easily as a way to gain a place in the hierarchy.
In
Association Life Enriching Communications (LivKom) we work with bullying as a
tragic expression of unmeet needs. We help the bully to connect with and to
express the needs, he / she is trying to fulfill (eg recognition), and thus it
becomes easier for him / her to find other ways which do not harm others.
Also the witnesses to bullying needs to be meet with understanding for their
reasons not to intervene. Perhaps they were afraid and wanted to protect
themselves against being bullied?
Bully victim's need for security, community and respect is very central and
recognizable, and it is often easy to express empathy and understanding. Often
the Bully also manages to express empathy for the victim when he / she
experiences understanding for themselves.
Association
LivKom has produced the movie 'NVC in 5th A ', which shows how bullying can turn into
wellbeing. The film is produced on a small grants and volunteer labor. The film
has created demand for a toolbox. We would like to continue this work and
develop a toolbox that can go with the film consisting of educational materials
and teacher guides. The materials are targeted at 4th-6th school level and are
developed in close interaction with 4 schools. The toolkit will be presented
and distributed to more schools to the extent that we have the means to do so.
US$ 23,000 will make it possible to develop an attractive box and produce it in
50 copies, which we can donate to 25 schools, while we give them a free
introduction to the use of the material. We seek this support because the
school has very limited funds to make a special effort in this area. With 25
schools, we have the opportunity to collect sufficient data for a later review
that could form the basis of an offer to all schools.
The described method is called Nonviolent Communication (Giraffe Language), and was developed by the American psychologist Marshall B. Rosenberg and used worldwide. The Association is a non-profit and has a vision of a world where all people are getting their needs met and resolving their conflicts peacefully. All work in the association is voluntary and several of us have over 15 years experience in our area