Projects Vidi Me
In 2014, the project "Nonviolent communication in Montenegrin primary education" was realized with the help of the Fund for an Open Society. The project was attended by primary schools from the Kotor municipality:
- O.Š. “Savo Ilić” u Dobroti, Kotor.
- O.Š. “Njegoš”, Kotor.
- O.Š. “Veljko Drobnjaković”, Risan.
- O.Š. “Ivo Visin”, Prčanj.
- O.Š. “Nikola Đurković”, Radanovići.
The aim was to introduce teachers and parents who are members of the Parents' Council to the basics of non-violent communication, as well as to enable teachers to organize non-violent communication workshops for students.
The application of this model can lead to the improvement of interpersonal relationships in the collective and the suppression of conflict situations both in school and in the family.
As part of the project, contact was also established with primary school teachers in Stockholm (Sweden), based on the principles of non-violent communication.
Integral training
Integral training for teachers lasted six days, and covered the following topics:
- Empathy, active listening, 4 NNK components.
- Get to know how to use non-violent communication on a professional and personal level.
- Enhancing communication that blocks compassion, developing observation models without assessing, identifying and expressing feelings and needs, taking responsibility for their feelings.
- Getting to know and using the language of positive action; getting acquainted with strategies to master the rage.
- Introducing and practicing ways of resolving internal and external conflicts
- Getting acquainted with techniques of expressing gratitude in non-violent communication.
Teachers were thrilled with both the way of work and the training program, and by the end of the school year they organized workshops with students.
Subsequently a supervisory meeting was organized with teachers to help them solve the problems they faced.
The trainer was an experienced psychologist and psychotherapist Smiljana Grujić, currently employed at the UNICEF Office for the Prevention of Violence in the Schools of the Republic of Serbia. Smiljana has been dealing with this kind of education for over twenty years and is one of the trainers who worked closely with the author of the training program "Words are windows, or they are walls" presented to teachers and parents.
The members of the parents' council of all five primary schools in Kotor had the opportunity to participate in the workshop for parents. Unfortunately their response was minimal besides the great efforts invested to include them.