SOS Fire!

European Training Course for school pupils on fire prevention and first aids through civic engagement

Summary

This project aims to create awareness among European school children about the risks caused by fire, its prevention and the most important measures to put in place in case of emergency and fire. Children are one of the most vulnerable target groups, especially children from underprivileged backgrounds (roma, immigrants, socio-economic problems, etc). Through this project, the partners will develop and implement a European training course for school children and for their teachers that will run in the context of a ‘SOS Fire! Campaign’ week that will be organised in each participating European school. Activities will include the running of a training course, a school project competition, lectures by experts from the fire brigades, hospitals, scientists, etc. The participation of the parents, families, school staff and the local communities will also be promoted. The training programmes and the SOS Fire! Week programme will be designed by the entire project partnership.

At the end of the project the children would not only have gained a better understanding about preventing fires and reacting in case of a fire emergency, but will have also improved their social and civic skills. They will feel more confident and responsible towards the society that they live in.

By participating in this project, the school establishments will open themselves to new teaching and learning actors and to the local community. They will provide the students a nice, fun and welcoming environment where to learn and the teachers will be able to introduce new methods from the informal and non formal contexts into their regular teaching ones.

As such, the project objectives are, among others:

- Improve the skills of young children, their teachers and their families in: o Recognize risk situations

Transform a risk situation into a safe situation

Identify sources of danger

How to act, evacuate and leave in a fast manner

Provide good advice in case of accidents

- Provide opportunities for schools to open up to their local community, its local organizations (NGOs, fire brigades, hospitals, public authorities, police forces, etc) and work together with them in the implementation of the SOS Fire! Week programme.

- Introduce new teaching and learning methods that could be used by teachers in schools during their lessons.

- Bring those external stakeholders to the school establishments so that they also contribute to bringing up the future generation of responsible Europeans.

- Empower young children so that they feel more confident and responsible towards the society where they live.

- Facilitate the integration of students from communities at risk of exclusion by providing them with the skills and tools that they need to live in a secured environment.

- Make the school environment more attractive.

- Promote school visits from one partner country to another and though confronting the students with a different language and cultural environment.

- Create an informal network of schools that will exchange experiences, teaching and learning methods and good practices that will continue to exist once the EU funding is over.

- Indirectly, students will also receive employment and career advice from the experts that will participate in the SOS Fire! Week (doctors, nurses, policemen, fire brigades, counselors, consultants, social workers, etc)

Target public:
- Primary school pupils
- Secondary school pupils
- School staff: teachers, head teachers, administrative staff, pedagogues, etc.
- Parents and families
- Local communities: local authorities, fire brigades, hospitals, social workers, NGOs working with deprived communities, etc
- European community at large

ESS Contact Person

Gabriela Colaço, Physiotherapy Departament

Timeline

September 2019 to August 2021

Partners

  • Fondation des Brûlés/Stichting Brandwonden , Belgium
  • FUNDATIA THE OPEN NETWORK FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, Romania
  • SDRUZENIJE NA NA RABOTESHTITE S HORA S UVREZHDANIYA, Bulgaria
  • INSTITUTO POLITECNICO DE SETUBAL, Portugal
  • Actie Dorpen Roemenie¨ - Vlaanderen vzw, Belgium

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