Respect in schools: Vienna is expanding successful prevention project!

Respect in schools: Vienna is expanding successful prevention project!

Innere Stadt, Österreich - In Vienna, the project "Respect: stronger" is expanded and continued. The program, launched by the city of Vienna and the Vienna Youth Center Association, has developed into an important initiative since its introduction in 2020 that deals with the challenges of living together in schools. How Meinzirk.at already reports 30 schools, with the planning to focus on ten further schools in the coming autumn.

The two mayors, Kathrin Gaál from the SPÖ and Bettina Emmerling from the Neos, are the initiators of this program. The aim is to transform schools into places of respect, where mutual recognition and acceptance are important. The program offers comprehensive support for topics such as bullying, violence and discrimination due to religious or sexual motifs, and at the same time wants to strengthen class cohesion.

workshop units and positive feedback

In the school year 2024/25, 318 workshop units were already carried out, which generated 5,912 student contacts. In addition, almost 200 parents or legal guardians and 608 teachers took part in 28 training courses. The positive feedback on these workshops is overwhelming, especially in the case of topics such as violence prevention as well as discrimination and sexism. It becomes clear how important such offers are in order to promote respectful way of dealing with each other.

A central element of the program is the training of respect ambassadors. These include well-known personalities such as Virginia Ernst, who is active both as a singer-songwriter and as an ice hockey player, and Faris Rahoma, who is known as an actor and screenwriter. They play an important role in the spread of the message and the values ​​that the program conveys. The educational councilor Emmerling praises the effectiveness of the program and emphasizes how important it is to bring support directly to the classroom.

diverse approaches to promote respect

The program not only includes workshops, but also theater pedagogical projects, teachers: interlocrators and parent work. At the end of the school year, the participating schools received the "Respect Schools" award. Another focus is on the training of empathy, resilience and the promotion of democracy and participation among students: inside. The program also goes into gender-friendly and aims to break down the traditional role models, such as Jugendzentren.at not.

The respect coaches program, funded by the Federal Ministry of Youth, acts nationwide at around 275 locations to promote the understanding of different worldviews and to actively counteract extremism and racism. The initiative supports schools to respect and defend a respectful and peaceful coexistence in the sense of comprehensive democratic education, such as the Federal Ministry for Family, Women and Youth. Explained

In summary, it can be said that Vienna makes a valuable contribution to promoting a respectful coexistence in schools with the program "Respect: stronger". The integration of the parents and the sensitization of teachers and students: Inside, helping to create a climate of understanding and acceptance.