Report Symposium 2018
More than 120 bridge figures, policy makers, scientists and pedagogues participated in the symposium "Bridge between school and home" on May 17, 2018 at the KBC Boerentoren in Antwerp. They joined us there for a critical reflection of the field and research around the bridging the gap project of Belgian Red Cross-Flanders. We are happy to look back with you on a fascinating day.
Introduction by our provincial chairman and also chairman of the day
Stef Meynendonckx
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In 2003, about twenty volunteers in two elementary school in Ghent started the first operation under the impulse of the city. Even 15 years later, we can still see that there is a gap between the school culture and the home environment of underprivileged pupils, so that both environments do not interact sufficiently. As a result, these students remain deprived of the opportunities that school can offer them. If pupils benefit less from what the school offers, disadvantages accumulate compared to pupils who are able to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by education. By disadvantaged pupils we mean pupils living in poverty and ethnic minority pupils.
Our project has since become a great success. Several children who were thought not to be able to advance to the next class were able to do so. It has really been worthwhile to involve volunteers at bridging the gap project. After all, they have the time to give the necessary individual attention to these children.
Anno 2018, we have grown to 74 departments participating in bridging the gap project, 30 of which are in the province of Antwerp. They deploy 575 bridge figures who help 2,617 children throughout Flanders.
Evidence-based practice
But that in a symposium on the bridge between school and home, we put the topic of evidence-based work on the agenda may have surprised many. Those who know our organization may not: Belgian Red Cross-Flanders has been committed, for more than 10 years now, to evidence-based work in all its activities.
Belgian Red Cross-Flanders has a Centre for Evidence-Based Practice (CEBaP), with ten scientists all working full-time for the Red Cross, giving Belgian Red Cross-Flanders one of the largest evidence-based centers in the Benelux. The term "evidence-based" is increasingly used, often incorrectly. Therefore, we devoted part of the program to explaining what exactly the term evidence-based means, and what it certainly is not.
We also apply this methodology to our projects in the social sphere. We would also like to mention the project "First Aid for Psychological Problems", launched last year by Minister Jo Vandeurzen, which is managed by Zorgnet-Icuro, and will be scientifically supported by Belgian Red Cross-Flanders. With Social Intervention Service (SIS) we have been active for decades in psychosocial first aid where we assist people in the event of shocking events, and are now going to broaden this to other problem areas such as anxiety attacks, what to do in case of suicidal thoughts, etc.
The methodology evidence-based practice rests on three pillars:
- the best possible scientific evidence (bahandled in the first session with Emmy De Buck);
- the preference of the target group (in our case, our volunteers who perform the activity, as well as experts who interpret it, such as e.g. the children's rights commissioner, represented by Naima Charkaoui);
- expert opinion (like the speakers from sessions 2 and 3).
It is hoped that this symposium will not only enrich content, but that participants will gain a better understanding of how the social sector can further strengthen itself by more emphatically balancing the scientific underpinnings of its activities with the other two pillars.
Symposium an annual standing appointment?
In 1990, the Medical Disaster Management symposium started in West Flanders in response to the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster in ZeeBrugge. It is now in its 14th edition. Red Cross-Antwerp has the ambition to follow the same path with this symposium.
No one better to welcome the participants to Antwerp by an Antwerp native. Claude Marinower, education alderman of the city of Antwerp, also briefly explains the Antwerp context.
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by alderman Claude Marinower, alderman for Education of the City of Antwerp |
The following themes were discussed during the symposium
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Speaker: Emmy De Buck (Centre for Evidence-Based Practice, Belgian Red Cross-Flanders) |
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Speaker: Lydia Ettema (Belgian Red Cross-Flanders) |
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Speaker: Bie Siegers (Belgian Red Cross-Flanders) |
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Speaker: Emmy Van Rooyen (National Association of Study Guidance Institutes) |
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Speaker: Nicole Vettenburg (Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, UGent) |
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Speaker: Naima Charkaoui (policy advisor Children's Rights Commissioner) |
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Speaker: Liselot De Groote (Vrienden van het Huizeke vzw) |
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Speaker: Nina Henkens (From the Margins) |
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Speaker: Cis Dewaele (SAM vzw - Reach Out & Straathoekwerk Vlaanderen) |
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Moderator: Carmen Mathijssen (Belgian Red Cross-Flanders) Participants:
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by Wim Wouters, advisor to Flemish Minister of Welfare Jo Vandeurzen |