The Buddy Project is a service free of charge developed by Pen Paper Peace Italy, which offers individualized educational and emotional support to secondary school students in Italy.
Each student has a buddy who listens, advises and motivates online once a week, as if he*she were a big sibling. The buddies are dedicated young volunteers aged 20-30 who have been carefully selected by Pen Paper Peace and trained by us. They also have access to professional supervision.
The Buddy project was developed in a user-centered design process, i.e. the needs of the users were the main focus.
This type of design develops, informs, and adapts to the needs of those who use the service to ensure an aware, inclusive, and flexible offer that involves buddies and students as "main experts" of their own experience in the design process.
Our values:
We accompany our students and orient us towards their individual decisions and needs.
We offer a flexible and dynamic pedagogical support that matches the personal learning styles of our students.
We recognize and support students' emotional development and provide emotional support beyond the classroom.
We strive to provide a service that is accessible to anyone who wishes to participate, at any time.
Our service is free of charge to any user.
We recognize and respect the diversity of all people and provide an inclusive and aware environment.
We promote a safe space where everyone can express their opinions and which is free of (pre-)judgment.
We keep up to date with current data protection legislation.
We choose our buddies with care and professionalism.
We guarantee that our buddies are prepared to report emergencies and to intervene.
We are willing to improve, update, and redesign the buddy project in order to keep up with the times.
The Buddy Project is there for the social and individual well-being of everyone.
SCHOOL COMPETITION
We kicked off our projects in Italy with a school competition in 2019. The project was initiated by Luca Marinelli, a prominent Italian actor, who has been an active member of PEN PAPER PEACE since 2012.
The aim of the competition was to sensitize Italian youth for the situation of children their age in Haiti, while collecting donations for St. Nicolas and St. Emma. Every participating school was supported by a well-known Italian actor or actress, so the wider public would also become more aware of the situation in Haiti.
The schools that raised the most donations with the most creative ideas won fun prizes, such as a concert at their school.
For more information on this project, please email Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!
