On April 13th CEIPES organized the second focus group with the national stakeholders of the CCJ4C – European guidelines for professional advice for staff working in the penitentiary system project no. 12883-EPP-1-2019-1-RO-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD, co-financed by European Commission under the “ERASMUS + K3 Support for Policy Reform

The meeting was attended by some regional representatives of UIL – Penitentiary Police trade union with whom a network is being formed in order to conduct a needs analysis of prison staff. The aim of the project is in fact to develop a training tool that can be useful to professionals in the field to improve their way of working life under several aspects.

The focus group started with a brief summary of the salient points that emerged in the previous meeting, held in November, during which some of the issues that agents face in their daily work were discussed: heavy shifts, staff shortages, lack of training or counseling.

One of the hottest point of the focus group was the discussion on the lack of recognition of the figure of the prison officer, anhigh-risk work, but for which public opinion is not always grateful. This can often creates frustration and sometimes leads the agents to be demotivated.

Together with the penitentiary’s staff, Dr. Ferraro, from the INAPP National Agency, attended the meeting and reported on our experience not only in the educational field but also in the sector in question. Together with her colleague from APL, Giuseppe Tredici, a reflection was made on the soft skills that could support staff in better managing their professional life, including conflict management/prevention, stress management, assertiveness, problem solving, proactivity.

The aim of the focus group was on the exchange of opinions, ideas and proposals on what could be a useful training, in order to support the staff.

For CEIPES it is extremely interesting to conduct focus groups with stakeholders in order to develop a useful and effective training proposal within the project.

For more information about the project, you can visit the website.

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