1. What is unique about ENABLE?

ENABLE is unique in its approach which combines Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) with Peer Support in order to tackle and reduce bullying. It is a holistic approach which includes young people, staff, parents and the wider community. Another innovative aspect is that ENABLE has trained a team of Ambassadors in each participating country, who are available to provide information and guidance to any school or organisation wishing to implement the programme. Learn more about the Ambassadors here.

2. How is ENABLE different from other anti-bullying programmes?

Using a unique approach that combines social and emotional learning (SEL) with Peer Support, the ENABLE team strives to provide school staff with the skills, knowledge and confidence that can help them establish an effective student Peer Support scheme in their schools and develop their students’ social and emotional skills. This programme is a departure from the two-dimensional view of bullying as victim and bully, and instead looks at the social and group dynamics in a school or leisure environment to address a range of factors which contribute to bullying.

3. What research is there that SEL programmes or peer support programmes are successful in tackling bullying behaviour?

SEL Programmes are among the most successful youth-development programmes offered to school-age youth. A meta-analysis of 213 studies shows that students in schools using universally-applied SEL Programmes have improved social, emotional and academic skills, including an 11-percentile point increase in achievement, as well as more pro-social behaviour and positive attitudes toward the self and others, and lower levels of emotional distress. Peer support systems reduce the negative impact of bullying on victims and make it more acceptable for them to report it. Naylor & Cowie (1999) surveyed 2,313 secondary school pupils and 234 teachers in 51 schools that had peer support systems. They found that, while peer support systems do not always reduce the incidence of bullying, they can be an effective preventive measure. Importantly, peer support systems reduce the negative impact of bullying on victims and make reporting easier.

4. What are the benefits or outcomes of ENABLE?

We consider the benefits of ENABLE to include the following:

• Supports the creation of a positive and healthy whole-school climate
• Improves emotional awareness in staff and students
• Improves attainment in assessments
• Reduces truancy and bullying incidents
• Improves staff well-being

You can find more detail about the features and the benefits of ENABLE in the Making ENABLE Work document. In addition, outcomes of SEL and the Peer Support Programme are included in the Impact Assessment area of our website.

5. What is the target age group for ENABLE?

The target group for ENABLE is 11-14 year olds. This means the resources are aimed at that age group but individual teachers or youth workers may feel that this programme is suitable for slightly younger or older children.

6. Why 11-14?

This is a pivotal age, where children are testing their autonomy and trying to understand their emotions. Statistics show that bullying becomes much more prevalent as children move from the more protective environment of the primary school to secondary school where they encounter peers from more diverse backgrounds and have to cope with days that are broken up into 40- or 50-minute slots, most with a different teacher. Supervision lessens because of this, and pupils find themselves tackling challenges on their own. A decades’ long study in the UK appears to prove that involvement in and reactions to bullying at this age will shape health, wealth and criminal tendencies for the rest of a person’s life. More around this and the research we carried out at the start of the project, can be found in the ENABLE research report.

7. Where should ENABLE be implemented?

The ENABLE programme is aimed for schools and any leisure environments where young people aged 11-14 may be, such as sports centres, youth clubs and others. However, many elements of the programme are also suitable to open discussions on bullying in families.

8. Can any school download and use the ENABLE resources?

Yes, the ENABLE programme is available for free here to any school, leisure organisation or anyone else wishing to download and use it. It is available on the ENABLE website in English as well as Croatian, Greek, French and Dutch. Certain resources are also available in Danish and Romanian.

9. How can I use the ENABLE resources if I'm not in a school environment?

The ENABLE programme is aimed to be used in leisure environments as well as in schools, so you can pick and choose from the resources to implement it wherever bullying appears to be an issue. Although it is recommended for use with young people of ages 11-14, it is also being used successfully with children/young people both younger and older than that.

10. Are the resources free?

Yes, the ENABLE resources are completely free to download here. They have been created by partners in UK, Denmark, Croatia, Belgium and Greece with co-funding from the Daphne Programme of the European Union.

11. I teach in a Primary School. Can any of the ENABLE resources be used with my students?

The resources have been created to target 11-14 year olds. However, a teacher or youth leader can review the resources and use them with slightly younger (or older) children if they deem the content to be suitable.

12. How do I begin to plan the roll-out of ENABLE in my school/ organisation?

We have produced a useful document entitled Making Enable Work. In it, you can find everything you need to know if you are considering using ENABLE, including a description of the benefits, steps to implementing ENABLE, barriers to success, getting the approval of your senior leadership team and the support of parents, and more practical aspects of implementing ENABLE.

13. I would like to become an Ambassador for ENABLE. What does that involve and how can I become one?

The ENABLE Ambassadors are teachers or educators who work directly in or with schools. They are the first people we trained to use the resources and are responsible for rolling it out in the schools they work with as well as promoting it to other schools in the community. As such they mainly deal with the school staff. You can find out more about the ENABLE ambassadors in each country from our Ambassadors page.

If you are interested in becoming an Ambassador, contact us at info-enable@eun.org, or contact your country partner in UK, Belgium, Croatia, Greece or Denmark. Here is how you can get in touch with each of the partners:

• Belgium: European Schoolnet (EUN), project coordinators
• Denmark: Center for Digital Youth Care (CfDP)
• UK: South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL) & Diana Award
• Greece: For Adolescent Health
• Croatia: Partners in Learning

If there is no partner in your country, please contact info-enable@eun.org.

14. I am in a country that is not one of the 5 ENABLE partner countries – can I still use the resources?

Yes. There are no geographical limitations to using ENABLE. If the ENABLE resources are not available in your national language, contact info-enable@eun.org to find out about translating them.

15. What languages are the resources available in?

The resources are available in English, Croatian, Greek, French and Dutch. Certain resources are also available in Danish and Romanian.

16. Which are the European country partners in the ENABLE programme and how do I get in touch with my country partner?

The partners in ENABLE are in UK, Denmark, Greece, Belgium and Croatia. You can find out more about them on our Partners page.

Here is how you can get in touch with each of the partners:

• Belgium: European Schoolnet (EUN), project coordinators
• Denmark: Center for Digital Youth Care (CfDP)
• UK: South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL) & Diana Award
• Greece: For Adolescent Health
• Croatia: Partners in Learning

If there is no partner in your country, please contact info-enable@eun.org.

17. How long does the ENABLE programme take to implement?

We recommend a minimum 10-week period to roll out ENABLE in your school or organisation. This would involve running one SEL module a week with students aged 11 to 14 years, though the modules are adaptable for other age groups too. They are designed to be run in parallel to the Peer Support Scheme as an essential element in a holistic approach to reducing bullying. The Peer Support Programme is also designed to run over a 10-week period and is most efficient if delivered in conjunction with the SEL modules.

You can find more details about implementing ENABLE in our Making ENABLE Work document.

18. Do the SEL lessons need to be delivered in the order they are presented or can they be delivered non-sequentially?

The SEL lessons are designed as a sequence and a progression so it is better for them to be delivered in the order they are presented. They are also closely linked to the Peer Support Programme. Therefore the programme is most efficient if both strands, the SEL modules and Peer Support Programme, are implemented alongside each other, concurrently. Nevertheless, you are welcome to pick and choose if you are, for example, an eTwinning project conducting an ENABLE-based project with another country, or simply if you find some modules more relevant than others for a specific group of children or at a given moment.

19. Who should be the person in a school or leisure environment to roll out ENABLE?

We recommend that in your school or organisation you select a lead person for the SEL component, someone who is experienced in SEL and supported by other staff members. A Staff peer support lead should also be selected for the Peer Supporter Programme, not necessarily the same lead person as for the SEL component, but someone who is supported by staff members and the young people recruited to be the peer supporters. More information on how to implement ENABLE can be found in the Making ENABLE Work document.

20. How have other schools or leisure environments used ENABLE?

Once the ENABLE resources were created, we trained a group of ENABLE Ambassadors in each country. These were, in most cases, teachers whose role is to roll out the ENABLE programme in their schools and neighbouring schools they work with. A number of schools in each country are now using ENABLE and we are continually collecting information about how they are using the approach. We are hoping these will form the basis of case studies or testimonials about the programme. You can find more about this on our Ambassador News and Testimonials page.

21. I want to share my experience of using ENABLE with others – how can I do that?

If you are using ENABLE we would love to hear from you! We have created a case study template (you can find it on the ENABLE Resources page) and would like to encourage any school or organisation using ENABLE to complete the template and share with us your experiences. We will publish some of these in our News and Testimonials page for schools to learn from and use as inspiration.

22. Can I obtain an ENABLE certificate or accreditation model?

There are 3 certification models available for ENABLE. If you are a teacher or a peer supporter and have followed the required training, you will receive a certificate from your local ENABLE ambassador and can apply to info-enable@eun.org for a virtual badge. If you are a teacher, parent, peer supporter or anti-bullying expert, you can watch the ENABLE webinars, complete the questionnaire, and apply for the ENABLE “knowledge” badge. See the ENABLE website for further information.

23. How is the ENABLE programme funded?

The ENABLE programme was set up and conducted for the first two years with financial support from the Daphne Programme of the European Union and further support from our associate partners. From October 2016, it is funded by the ENABLE consortium and associate partners.

24. How can I measure the impact of ENABLE in my school?

We have carried out an impact assessment with a number of pilot schools and early adopters of ENABLE, and the results have been published on the ENABLE website. Assessment comprised a pre-assessment which pupils completed before they began the ENABLE programme, and a post-assessment, which they completed after having participated in the SEL and peer supporter training modules. in September 2016. Within the SEL modules there is also an optional questionnaire that teachers can run with students in Lesson 1 and again in Lesson 9 which will allow for some impact data to be collated. We suggest that you do this as a class activity, using the anonymised data for students to better understand their class environment.

For further information, please check the Impact Assessment area.

25. My helpline supports young people – how is ENABLE relevant to me?

As a helpline targeting young people, you can use the ENABLE platform for upgrading the skills of counsellors so that the service your helpline is able to provide will be optimized to have the greatest impact.

In the review part of ENABLE, you will find an extensive report that provides insight into the extent of bullying in the EU as well as an overview of existing initiatives in the area. On the ENABLE platform you will find more than 60 tools (apps etc.) that you can refer young people directly to. Finally, you can use both SEL modules and Peer-support modules as inspiration to develop your helpline’s own practice in relation to bullying.

In Denmark, for example, we used the ENABLE program as a basis for the development of a “group chat” model where young people help each other to achieve better understanding of the dynamics behind bullying and share concrete experiences and possibilities for action.

26. How are the associate partners involved in ENABLE?

The ENABLE associate partners from industry are Facebook, Vodafone, Twitter, Ask.fm and Kaspersky Lab, with Icelandic Red Cross and Telefono Azzurro (Italy) from the charity sector. They provide support to ENABLE, help us gain a better insight into the activities of young people online and promote the programme through their networks.