CyberSense | Poland and Belgium

Given the rise of cyberbullying and hate-speech online, the Evens Foundation joined forces with UK-based Ariel Trust to introduce their CyberSense resource in two new contexts: Poland and Belgium.

This online resource helps to equip children (9-11) with the skills to recognize, respond to and report cyberbullying and promote staying safe online. It includes exercises that get young people discussing these important issues in an informal way, while it also gives them the opportunity to practice how to react when confronted with incidents of cyberbullying.

Facilitated by the Evens Foundation, Ariel Trust provided the project partners - Towarzystwo Edukacji Antydyskryminacyjnej (TEA) in Poland and Pimento in Belgium - with access to the existing CyberSense programme, worked with them to understand the theory and methodology behind it, and supported them to develop customised content relevant for their local context.

From previous experience, we know that a thorough adaptation process involving local actors is crucial to ensure that a tool or resource answers (local) needs, habits, sensitivities, tastes, and so on. It also helps to instil the necessary sense of local ownership to make a project sustainable in the long run. In the case of CyberSense, Ariel Trust, the original developer of the resource also benefited from the adaptations made by Pimento and TEA.

Given the rise of cyberbullying and hate-speech online, the Evens Foundation joined forces with UK-based Ariel Trust to introduce their CyberSense resource in two new contexts: Poland and Belgium.

This online resource helps to equip children (9-11) with the skills to recognize, respond to and report cyberbullying and promote staying safe online. It includes exercises that get young people discussing these important issues in an informal way, while it also gives them the opportunity to practice how to react when confronted with incidents of cyberbullying.

Facilitated by the Evens Foundation, Ariel Trust provided the project partners - Towarzystwo Edukacji Antydyskryminacyjnej (TEA) in Poland and Pimento in Belgium - with access to the existing CyberSense programme, worked with them to understand the theory and methodology behind it, and supported them to develop customised content relevant for their local context.

From previous experience, we know that a thorough adaptation process involving local actors is crucial to ensure that a tool or resource answers (local) needs, habits, sensitivities, tastes, and so on. It also helps to instil the necessary sense of local ownership to make a project sustainable in the long run. In the case of CyberSense, Ariel Trust, the original developer of the resource also benefited from the adaptations made by Pimento and TEA.