IPS_Innovative Prison Systems hosted a workshop to validate and disseminate the FRAMEGANG Framework of Competencies for Community Professionals working in Gang Environments.
The workshop took place in Cascais, Portugal on the 27th July and gathered social workers, magistrates, prison and probation officers, community leaders, local authorities representatives that contributed to validate the competence framework, assessment tools and learning materials, but also to identify further opportunities for their use by practitioners with youngsters at risk. Tiago Leitão, Alexandra Gomes and Pedro Liberado from IPS presented the tools and materials developed and animated the workshop discussions.
The European Framework of Competences for Community Professionals working in Gang Environments was developed in the course of the FRAMEGANG project. Over the last 3 years the project team developed and piloted tools, learning materials and a training methodology that allowed the identification of the competencies needed for engaging within local communities affected by gang crime to harness their local knowledge and meaningfully increase their understanding and capacity to act in gang environments.
One of the most significant results was the definition of a common understanding/common language concerning what gangs are and what community professionals interacting with them should know. This is a transparent and usable tool structured around the practitioners competencies linked to generic areas of activity and linked to specific levels of proficiency (based on EQF) and exemplified in terms of three types of learning outcomes: knowledge; skills; and wider competences described as personal and professional outcomes.
The navigation chart – available at the project website – facilitates the updating of community professionals’ understanding and that of their employers/contractors of what it takes to work efficiently into a gang affected community; provides training providers with a validated tool for bridging the skills missed-match between what they deliver and what the community really needs; started a documented discussion at public policy level agenda about gangs, youth violence, radicalisation and professionals addressing it.
For further information visit the FRAMEGANG website or contact us at ips@prisonsystems.eu