About the conference
“Significance of peer mediation, in the upbringing of children and youth – theoretical and practical aspects”
17 October 2019
Primate’s Palace
(Hotel Bellotto),
Senatorska Street 13/15
Warsaw
09:00AM-15:30PM
On the occasion of the International Mediation Day, on 17th October 2019 in the Primate’s Palace in Warsaw, PPHS organized a nationwide conference “The significance of peer mediation in the upbringing of children and youth – theoretical and practical aspects”. The event was organized in cooperation with a retired judge Anna Maria Wesołowska. The conference was held under the honorary patronage of the Polish Commisioner for Human Rights, habilitated doctor Adam Bodnar.
During the conference we were guesting the following speakers:
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Andrzej Stefański – Director, Chief Social Affairs Coordinator in the Office of the Commisioner for Human Rights;
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Anna Maria Wesołowska – retired judge;
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Dorota Zawadzka – Developmental Psychologist and independent expert;
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Izabela Buszewicz – President of the Świętokrzyskie Mediation Centre;
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Dorota Whitten – Peace Education Coordinator, mediator, sociologist;
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Joanna Wajda – Peace Education Coach.
Conference highlights (EN sub):
The opening of the celebration was graced with Andrzej Stefański’s speech – Director and Chief Social Affairs Coordinator in the Office of the Commisioner for Human Rights. Afterward, judge Anna Maria Wesołowska introduced the topic of peer mediation to the participants and started a lecture in the first thematic session. Dorota Zawadzka followed with a discussion about the issues connected with the role of relations between students and teachers, peer authority, school participation and school self-government as a factor which shapes civic attitudes; whereas, Izabela Buszewicz emphasized the importance of communication and listening skills in the process of conflict solving among the youngest.
During the second thematic session, the House of Peace Foundation representatives – Dorota Whitten and Joanna Wajda held workshops, during which they shared their experience on how to use mediation as a real tool for counteracting and solving problems on a daily basis. During this session, the retired judge Anna Maria Wesołowska underlined also the importance of legal education in the light of modern threats, as well as the role of parents, schools and assistance services in creating a safe environment, a world of values but also establishing borders for children.
The event was attended by 150 people, in particular, representatives of education, Board of Education, child and family support institutions, as well as curators, mediators and psychologists.
We would like to thank our media patrons: Publishers C.H. Beck, the Psychological Magazine “Charaktery” and the Od.Nowa Publishing House for their involvement and help in promoting the conference.
150 participants
5 speakers
1 workshop session
Speakers
The speakers list includes: Anna Maria Wesolowska, Dorota Zawadzka, Izabela Buszewicz, Joanna Wajda and Dorota Whitten.
Gallery
Organizer
Polish Platform for Homeland Security
The Polish Platform for Homeland Security has several years of experience in the area of broadly defined prevention. Since 2017, the Platform has been the partner of the Observatory of Threats to Young People, which brings together different institutions from the Wielkopolskie Province. The project engages the partners to prevent all negative phenomena that are present in and constitute real threats to young people (www.obserwatorium.wlkp.pl/en). Moreover, in 2017, the PPHS organized a conference titled "The role of integrated prevention in ensuring the security of children and youth" with the honorary patronage of the Children's Rights Ombudsman, the Commissioner for Human Rights, the Minister of Family, Labor, and Social Policy, and the Minister of National Education. The conference was attended by over 200 participants and the conclusions stimulated the public to discuss the role and directions of development of integrated prevention (link).
The PPHS extends its patronage to important events and publications, such as the book published in 2018, titled "Preventive measures. Planning and performance," written by Dr. Marzena Kordaczuk-Wąs, which constitutes an important compendium of knowledge about preventive measures (link). Also, the PPHS was the patron of two training series conducted since last year; the main objective of the first one, titled "'Step-by-step' prevention with proven effectiveness - how to design an effective preventive program," was to familiarize the participants with the principles of creation, implementation, and evaluation of preventive programs. The second series, titled "Family mediations as a conflict-solving method," is conducted by judge Anna Maria Wesołowska (link).
The Polish Platform for Homeland Security is currently conducting the PPHS Secure School Program, whose objective is to conduct classes on broadly defined security in schools. The topics of the classes are cybersecurity, addiction prevention, mediation, peer violence, legal education, and anti-terrorist education (link).
