"Peers Against Violence - Perspectives"
October 2007
The study of the human societies and the historical events reveal a very important finding. How important it is to determine the relationship with others. One of the major categories of the social world is the distinction between "self" and "other", and the distinction between "us" and "others".
The study "Peers against Violence" tried to enlighten whether young people from public and private schools were aware of what is prejudice and discrimination, and whether they have lived such an experience in relation to their age, gender, religion, ethic background and disability. The sample was 148 high school students, 14-18 years old who attended private and public schools in Nicosia.
The results of the research showed that the Media was mainly responsible (83.8%) for the projection of prejudice or discrimination. The Media, are an extension of society and they reproduce at a great degree deeply rooted social prejudices and stereotypes. Meanwhile, they transmit these to the public of any age. Another important finding is the school environment (54.7%) where young people experience prejudice or discrimination, and the school material contents (52%). Those that answered the questionnaires believe that the major cause of prejudice or discrimination is the ethnic background and the external appearance. They also believe that there have been positive measures to fight discrimination in Cyprus, and these were mainly activities such as conferences, seminars, concerts etc., as well as the inclusion of young people from diverse backgrounds.
Employers and Persons with Mental Illness:
Rejection or Inclusion?
May 2002 - May 2005
In a world where institutionalization is no longer present, and persons with disabilities are integrated into the community, a large percentage of persons with chronic and severe mental illness are unemployed.
The research aimed to prove that the main reason for the unemployment of persons with mental illness is mainly the discrimination and the stigma they experience from employers and society in general. Furthermore, the research aimed to verify the concerns of employers about the hiring of persons with mental illness and possible incentives that could make them consider hiring them.
The sample included 48 companies located in all cities of Cyprus and 237 employees from all these companies. A second part of the research was a quantitative measure of the attitudes of the public. A sample of 807 people, representative of the whole Cyprus population was used to measure public attitudes towards persons with mental illness.
Originally, the research evaluated whether employers and employees understand the meaning of “persons with disabilities” and the meaning of “persons with mental illness”. Consecutively, it evaluated the attitude of employers towards persons with mental illness, the attitude of employees towards their co-workers with mental illness, and the attitudes of the public. It also evaluated the knowledge of employers on what is mental illness, and asked employers, which would be the most favorable incentives to them in order to employ persons with mental illness.
The results clearly showed the presence of stigma in the attitudes of the populations studied. Persons with mental illness are considered as a separate group than persons with disabilities despite the fact that mental illness is a disability. Furthermore, the negative attitude and the cautiousness of the groups under study, originates from their ignorance about mental illness, about the social and vocational skills of the mentally ill, and most of all about equal rights and equal opportunities which are inalienable human rights.
Training of Teachers of Mainstream Schools
June 2003 - May 2004
Providing equal opportunities for children with disabilities has been strongly endorsed in recent years, gradually leading to accommodations in mainstream classrooms for children with a range of disabilities. The study aims to evaluate information regarding the effectiveness of the support-training program “Educational Planning, Strategies, and Goals for Working with All Students” for mainstream teachers. Furthermore, it examines the efficiency of the teaching methods used, and difficulties encountered with the educational system.
“Diverse Workforce”
November 2004 - April 2005
The universal declaration of Human Rights was the cornerstone for the International Charter of Human Rights. It influenced EU Member States to adopt Article 13 of the Treaty of Amsterdam and as an outcome of this the Directives n°2000/43/EC and n°2000/78/EC were enacted thus establishing a general framework of equal treatment in employment and occupation.
DIVERSE WORKFORCE aimed at providing the knowledge and education to professionals who are involved in the recruitment of employees such as employers, human resource managers, employment agencies, legal advocates, workers’ unions, employers unions, mental health professionals, about the employment of individuals from diverse backgrounds
Educating employers and the public brings change to any unfavorable societal attitudes regarding the employment of persons with disabilities. To achieve this goal DIVERSE WORKFORCE adopted a structure of presentations that would take every participant step by step into the world that persons with mental illness live and show them who they are and what they can do if they are equally treated and included into society.