In July 2019 an independent evaluation of the DARE project was carried out by Dr Ritesh Shah, University of Aukland, New Zealand.  Dr Shah used the Most Significant Change approach and collected 77 impact stories from children, teachers and parents.  

SOLE: An experiment in learning (Teacher, Romania) - At the SOLE training, I felt that the big questions being explored were too general. They were social and ethical questions which were not relevant for me as a physics teacher. I felt I had to make big questions more related to the topic of my class. We started with easy questions to start, things like the life and work of a specific physicists, or questions which have a simple answer, like how a rainbow is created. I told them that every question has an answer and that it is their job to find that information. Each time at the end of the presentation, I would summarise what they had found, but then moderate and provide feedback, highlighting the degree to which they answered the question correctly based on credible information. I also discussed with them some of the key information they missed. I suggested to students that they needed to move beyond looking at just a couple main sources like Wikipedia and Schoolnet, and also look at Powerpoint presentations which they might find online. Over time, the children have become much better at thinking for themselves, questioning the information they find, and being more critical of what other groups present. The children have started to assume my role as a moderator themselves.  For example, one of the physicists we were looking at was André-Marie Ampère. They said that his name was on the Eiffel Tower, and I questioned whether this was right or not. The children were certain this was correct, so during break time they checked again on their phones and after break time proved me wrong. It’s exciting to see these children with confidence and more assured about learning. These are children who will have to make important life decisions. To do this they need to find a range of information and then make good decisions based on that information.

Challenges towards improvement (Teacher, Ukraine) - In our centre each child comes into our sessions with particular behaviours or attitudes which impact on what happens in the group. At first, I struggled to understand where or how I could change some of the behaviours I observed which made it difficult for me to manage the children. One boy, for example was so full of energy while here that he was almost uncontrollable. He would jump around the classroom, try to escape and not take anything seriously. Another boy would never clean up at the end of our sessions despite me nagging him continuously. Because our SOLE sessions run at the end of the day, I am often here when the parents come to pick their children up. These parents would often ask about their children and their participation. At first, I didn’t give too much attention or effort into speaking with these parents. In fact, for some of them, I didn’t even know their names or whose parent they were. But then I was given the responsibility of organising and managing the parent groups and sessions as part of the DARE programme. If I am honest, I would say this has been a really frustrating thing for me to manage because I put a lot of time and effort into organising events and activities for them, but often very few show up. I might invite 20 parents, but only 4 actually come. On the other hand, I’ve come to see how much these children are impacted by their parents. For the boy with lots of energy, for example, I discovered the reason he is so full of energy here in the centre is because his mother controls him so tightly at home. He comes to the centre and just needs to unwind. The boy who never cleans up has a mother who never asks him to clean up either. No wonder he doesn’t take responsibility for this! While the formal sessions I’ve organised for parents haven’t always been a success, I’ve become more observant in noticing the interactions between parents and children in more informal activities we have, like movie nights or parties. I’ve come to understand the children and their behaviour through their home environment and now have a lot more patience and sympathy for some of the challenging behaviours I have to deal with in the centre.

Be confident (Social worker, Ukraine) In the SOLE sessions, we work in a very different way. The children have a lot of independence and freedom to organise themselves, express their ideas, and present what they have learned. For many children this is not easy. They come from an environment where children are not encouraged or supported to discuss what they are thinking and are sometimes punished for being wrong. In schools they are taught information and not how to express their thoughts. This makes it really difficult to implement SOLE at the start. One boy in my group, for example, refused to participate the first 3-4 times. He would just stand by the door and observe what was going on. I encouraged him to be part of the group but did not force him to participate. Slowly, he decided on his own to join the group, first by completing a small task like writing something down on a piece of paper, and later by presenting the information to the class. I’ve also tried to encourage children to not rely solely on the internet or other printed information to answer the big question. Many of the ones I work with are young and cannot read or write. Instead, I’ve gotten them to come up with answers to the big question based on their own ideas and opinions. Sometimes they come up with really creative and interesting ideas this way, and I always try to encourage this. I keep reminding them that it doesn’t matter if what they say is correct or incorrect. It is only afterwards that I’ll present them with the correct information. In my group now, the children have a lot more confidence to express their ideas and speak their opinions. They are not afraid to say what is on their mind. This is important because this generation should be confident in their choices and what they want to do, both for their schooling and beyond.

Everyday paths of life (Social worker, Romania) - We opened up the centre in this community in 2016. When we started, we also did a range of activities with children, and their parents. Much of this work was focussed around different holidays celebrated in the community, where we would run open days, hold celebrations and invite parents and children to be part of the festivities. There was, however, less structure to the work we were doing. When DARE came along, we were introduced to a range of new activities like the SOLE, children’s parliament, mindfulness and parenting sessions. We had to, however, find an alternative to the models presented to us because of the challenges we face with the population in our community. For example, many of the children do not have very good literacy and may have never seen or used a computer before. Doing SOLE as we were taught, using laptops, searching for information, and writing or presenting ideas on what was found was nearly impossible with this group. Instead, we came up with the idea of Art SOLE, where we would build their self-confidence, communication and being part of a community, but without the internet. We did things like trust walks where we would blindfold the children and ask them to lead another. This helped the children to trust each other, overcome some of the prejudice and racism they face, and to communicate with each other more productively. We also adapted the parent groups and sessions and decided to have a psychologist who would organise meetings to discuss topics of interest to their parents themselves. While many of the trainings through DARE provided a good start, we had to come back and think about how to make it work for our community.  It meant going beyond the support through DARE and finding additional resources, ideas and information on our own. Because of the challenges and stresses of working in this role,  DARE also supported my own well-being and introduced me to the idea of mindfulness. I now practice what we learned every day or couple days. It helps me to cleanse both my body and soul and makes me appreciative and thankful for what I have. Through all these experiences, I feel much more empowered and able to work in this community and in this centre. I feel I now have stronger relations with the children and their parents, and greater confidence and knowledge on how to address some of the big challenges we face here.  And through working with the children and parents, they are now inspiring and pushing us to do more. For example, mothers are now asking us to run literacy classes for them and we’re thinking that we’d like to do this using SOLE with them as well. While this is a process and still ongoing, the support received through DARE has contributed to our growth as a team.

Through struggle we’ve reached the stars (Social pedagogue, Ukraine) - There is a problem with this generation. They’ve lost the ability to communicate with each other face to face. This is a product of both the internet and technology, and home environments today where many children no longer spend time speaking with their parents because they are too busy with work. Instead, children are focussed on their devices and connecting with people on their phones. As an example of this, a few years ago in our school, the hallways and yard would be noisy and rambunctious during breaktimes with students talking to each other. Now during breaktimes, you often wonder if the students have all left the school because it is so quiet. The reason it is so quiet is because they are all on their phones and not actually speaking to each other. I observe this in class as well.  Students have become very afraid of sharing their ideas in front of the class and have lost the ability to express their feelings to others. This worries me and the other teachers at our school greatly. When we started SOLE many of these problems also existed in the group.  The students did not know how to cooperate and communicate with each other. They were very timid when it came time to present their work. Often it was only the students who were academically strong who took on the roles of presenting information and leading the group.  Over time, though, the students came to realise that there is no wrong answer and that they will not be judged, by me or the other students for what they say. They will not be assessed on their work in SOLE. Additionally, and with the encouragement of their peers, students who were not naturally strong at presenting or leading were given an opportunity to serve in these roles. Through SOLE they gained confidence, and many of the less academically strong students realised they are natural leaders or speakers. I too have also had to change from my traditional role as a strict person of authority, to that of friend and partner.  Slowly this has opened up the communication within the group, including with me as their teacher. They have learned how to share their ideas and emotions, and now many can speak comfortably in front of others. It is only through communication that we can work together as a community and help each other to solve problems we face.

The change (Teacher, Moldova) - We live in an age where many of our children are focussed on themselves. You see this in the way they walk through the halls on their phones rather than looking up and speaking to each other. In general, this generation seems more selfish and not communicating with each other. They are not really involved in extra activities in the school and not volunteering themselves to enhance their school community. In class are also quite timid and not willing to stand in front of the class. Two years ago, the SOLE sessions were introduced to a group of students in our school. The children were provided an environment where they had to work together, take initiative on their own, learn how to communicate and collaborate with each other, and present their ideas. At first, you noticed that even within this environment, the students still worked individually, and didn’t really collaborate. Over time though, and with my guidance and encouragement, they started to change. They began to cooperate and develop and share their ideas to the big question, not as individuals, but as a group. Working in this way has slowly influenced the way this group of students are within the school. You see them now speaking freely to each other socially in the hallways during the school day and participating actively in class. Importantly, this group of students have become leaders in the school, and eager to organise activities on behalf of the student body. Given that the goal of our school is to raise good citizens—which requires important qualities such as open communication, tolerance and collaboration—the SOLE sessions have been critical to us achieving this goal. It helps our students to be more engaged with each other, their community, and eventually their country.

The story of success (Social pedagogue, Ukraine) - At the start of the DARE programme, when we asked students to organise themselves into groups as part of SOLE, there were a lot of problems. This is because we had a variety of abilities and ages in a single group. As a result, some children were really strong at reading, writing and using the computers. Others were not and really struggled with these skills. At the start, this led to the older kids and younger kids dividing themselves out into separate groups, and not mixing together. Often, the older kids would finish much more quickly than the younger kids and get frustrated waiting around for the other groups to finish. Additionally, at the start, there was a lot of yelling and shouting as the groups worked because they felt they needed to speak over each other. And, many groups struggled to divide tasks between them. They would fight and there would be tears over who would use the computer first, and sometimes one or two people would do everything as part of the group while the others would sit there doing nothing. Over time, and through a lot of practice of working together in the SOLE sessions, these dynamics started to change. The students began to learn from their mistakes and past experiences, and also came to realise that there would be future opportunities to do things differently if they didn’t get what they wanted this time around. Younger students started joining the older students’ groups and observing and learning from them. Those who always dominated the groups began to see that they could accomplish more if they worked as a team. The students have learned to cooperate and work together much better than at the start. This is a critical skill for life.  When we started the SOLE sessions, students from different sections in the same class were brought together for the first time. They would come in and sit with those they knew from their own sections and form groups based on this. They did not want to change groups and would act competitively towards the other groups. So, after asking the DARE management how to deal with this situation, I started to actively force the students to work with new students from other sections. I would pass out candies and then ask students to sit with the others who had the same colour candies as them. Over time, they began to slowly realise that it is not a big deal to work with those that they do not know, and in fact, they could learn from each other, and make new friends. Now in the SOLE sessions, students come in and speak with everyone else in the group. The group is united, despite the fact they come from different sections. And the groups, are different every time. Those who are strong in something, like using Powerpoint, are teaching others how to better use it and present their ideas. Outside of the sessions, this same group of students also engages and supports each other. They speak to each in the hallway and discuss the exams they are now all taking together. For me, seeing this change in this group is important because some of the basic skills we need to develop in our children are the ideas of empathy, communication, tolerance and collaboration. In the age of phones and social media, this is even harder because everyone lives in their own bubble. SOLE is helping students to engage with each other face to face and helping them to be more understanding and less fearful of others.

Living in the internet age (Social pedagogue, Moldova) - When we started the SOLE programme, and I tasked groups with answering the big question and finding information on the internet, there were a lot of challenges. Many times, and to get the task done as quickly as possible, they would just look at the first site that came up in a search and copy that information down—whether it was correct or not, and whether it answered the question or not. Many did not even really engage with what they were writing down and so could not fully explain what they had copied. At the same time, they also had a lot of questions about how to search the internet. They wanted to know things like where to search, how much information they needed to find, and what they needed to write down. As a teacher, I encouraged them to find sources which were more accessible and understandable to them—for example sites with pictures or videos. I also tried to get students to go beyond looking at the first page of search results, and to look at multiple pages. When students presented what they found, I encouraged them to debate the different answers they came up with to get them to understand that there are many different perspectives on the internet, and that not all of them are as valid or evidence based.  For the more difficult big questions, I taught them how to reformulate the question and search for keywords related to that question. Now the students are able to search for the right information, filter the information they read, and find information that is accessible and understandable to them. It allows me to assume the role of a facilitator who can sit back and just observe as the students go off and search and synthesise what they are looking for. For these students, having these skills in the information age we live in is important. They need to understand how to engage with what is out there, and to not just accept everything they read.

My domesticated wolf (Caregiver, Moldova) - Since the age of 10, I’ve had a girl in my house who I have been taking care of. She came from a very socially deprived background. She had lived in several other temporary homes, after her mother had been forced to go abroad to earn a living. When she came to live in our house she was like a wolf. She barely spoke or communicated with anyone, including myself. She had no social skills at all and would eat her food in a corner quickly and with a guilty look on her face. She was also afraid of everything…you could even see it in her eyes. She was also very selfish and didn’t really consider others around her, in part because she had always grown up by herself and hadn’t really engaged with others. She stated coming to the centre here a couple years later, and as part of that participated in the SOLE programme when it started. I noticed that through SOLE she learned to take into account the feelings and needs of others, and also became much more sociable. She made a number of new friends and became more willing to engage in the life of the home, her school and her community. For example, when my sick aunt moved into my house, she would come home after school and feed her lunch before she would eat lunch herself. This was without me asking. This year she went off to study in Romania. I think the SOLE programme helped her in living in this new environment, and to not be afraid of the change of studying abroad. Because of this, she is now top of her class and is no longer the solitary wolf she once was.

Leadership: A skill for the future (Social worker, Moldova) - When we started the SOLE programme, and children were split into groups, I noticed that one of the big challenges we faced is that children did not know how to manage their independence and freedom. They needed some support to manage themselves, to work as a group, and to share responsibilities for completing the task. For example, some children took control of the group, while others just sat there quietly. This is because some of these children were already confident, or older and more assertive; while others were afraid to share their ideas. As a social pedagogue, I worked hard to try to change this. I ensured that each session, the groups were comprised differently so that the leaders of the group of the time previous were placed into different groups the next time. This meant that they had to learn to compromise with others, and other children had the opportunity to step up and be a leader. And children slowly discovered their own talents, and voluntarily contributed these talents to their groups. At the same time, the leadership tasks became more distributed in the group, so that everyone shared some responsibility for contributing to what the group presents at the end. For example, one child would take responsibility for keeping track of the time, while another would take responsibility for thinking about how to best present the group’s ideas. SOLE has helped children to discover the different talents they have and allowed them to lead in different ways both within our centre, and outside. It has enabled them to understand that there is no single leader in society, and that in our family and community life we all have something to contribute.

 Special needs in the focus (Social worker, Moldova) - When we started DARE, I found it really challenging to engage parents in the programme. I would invite 20 parents, but only three would show up. I realised after a bit of time that parents of the children attending SOLE did not want to be taught how to be a better parent. However, I started observing that outside the special education room on the first floor of the school, the parents of children with special needs would often hang outside the room. They would sit there, waiting for their children and doing nothing. So, I started inviting the parents spending time outside the room to have a tea or coffee with me, first individually and then in small groups. Slowly the parents started to speak to each other, and together we would make small handicrafts or initiate some small community engagement activities like visiting a home for children with cancer, or an elderly home. At the same time, I started to invite specialists to come speak to these parents, based on their interests and concerns. Now the  parents are organising themselves, and I just help to support and facilitate their interest. Recently, they organised an exposition in the school, to make others aware of what it means to create an inclusive school community for everyone. And, they have now decided to establish their own association of parents of children with disabilities. Unlike other parents who have kids who are sick, these parents deal with disabilities that cannot be cured. This creates a lot of stress in their lives and often they feel alone in dealing with it. At the same time, they have a lot of free time, because many are not working, but do not know what to do when their child is in school. Through the parent support group, we’ve managed to create a community which is now supporting others in need outside the school. They also now have a place to support each other and make others aware about the needs of their children. This helps them to better deal with the stress in their lives, while also strengthening the community as a whole.

My rebirth (Teacher, Ukraine) - I’ve been part of the leadership of the school for some time. As a leader, I used to be incredibly authoritarian. Everyone was afraid of me—my colleagues, the students, and their families. People didn’t feel they could talk to me and could never really tell me what they were thinking or feeling. A lot of this had to do with my attitude at that time. I carried on with an attitude that I was above them in the sky. Even before the DARE programme started, and because of personal challenges I faced, I realised the need to change. My way of being was suffocating me and those around me. I didn’t like being so lonely in my power, and realised I needed to gain more empathy and understanding of others. So, when I started facilitating the SOLE session, I had already started to change, but SOLE was useful medicine to force me to continue to improve. For instance, when I first facilitated the SOLE sessions, the children were terrified to say anything. But then, as they realised, I was not there to control them things moved in the opposite direction. They grew uncontrollable, and I sometimes had to say something 10 times to get them to listen to me. This was also unmanageable. With the help of the others in my school who were also implementing SOLE, I was able to find a solution which worked for me. Having this experience as a teacher of a new programme, rather than just as an administrator supervising it, gave me a new appreciation for how hard it is to change things. I helped me to understand that changing the way you teach takes time, and that you aren’t able to achieve results immediately. This impacts now on the way I evaluate and understand the work of teachers who are trialling something new. I have a lot more patience now for the time this takes.  Being part of SOLE has helped me to be less authoritarian. I needed this medicine as it has helped me to see the errors of my past ways. The result is now parents, children and other members of staff are no longer afraid to approach me. I’ve become connected to them in away that I never managed to do before.

 The joy of being together (Social pedagogue, Romania) - When I first arrived here in the centre, I observed that when we were doing the SOLE sessions, the children did not really understand how to work together as a group. Some children were natural leaders and they tended to boss the others around. It was these same children who always dominated the tasks required as part the SOLE. And so, those who were not involved would often leave the group out of boredom, and the groups did not really function as planned. I decided that it was important to encourage and find ways to get all children involved more in the groups, but not to tell them directly what to do. So, for the children who were regularly leaving the group, I set up a space where they could play outside the group. At the same time, I would make sure to speak to them and encourage them as much as I could to rejoin the activity when they felt ready to. For those who were the natural leaders, I praised their abilities, but also discussed how it might be more effective if they delegated tasks and responsibilities amongst all members of the group. At the same time, I realised that I need to come up with questions and activities which built on the interests, strengths, and learning styles of all the children. Some children are, for example more interested in reading and writing things, while others like to draw, and others need to experiment and touch. When I search for questions, I try to find ones which allow students to explore and present their discoveries in different ways. I always try to bring an element of novelty to the group. Slowly, the situation has improved. The natural leaders are now delegating tasks better. Those children who used to leave and remain out of the group, are making efforts to return to the group as soon as possible. In part, this is because they all now see their usefulness and importance to the task. I believe that it is only through working together that this generation of children will be successful with all their future aspirations.  This is because as humans, we are social beings who are connected to everyone around us.  We do not live alone, but in communities and we need to learn to live and work alongside each other.

Behind an enlightened child, stands a teacher (Teacher, Moldova) - When I first started facilitating SOLE sessions in our school, it was quite a challenge for me to engage with the children. This is because the children only knew me as the adjunct director of the school and were a bit timid and shy to speak freely around me. They saw me as a person of authority and not someone they could joke and express their thoughts and feelings with. While normally, as the adjunct director, I have to be very serious, in SOLE sessions I could joke and be more personal with them. I would start each session asking them how they were feeling and making eye contact with each of them. I also smile at them. Slowly, I have managed to set up a good relationship with the kids. They now see me in a different way, and more like a friend. Every session, the students come in and greet me warmly with a hug. Because of this, I have gotten to know this group of children well.  This helps me to better and ensure that I can shape the sessions around their needs, interests and feelings. For me to help support the development of these children’s life skills, I’ve discovered how important it is to build strong relationships with these children first.

From a snowball to an avalanche (Teacher, Moldova) - When we first started SOLE, I observed there were many problems with the way the children were working. For one, when they were working in groups they would work as individuals on answering the big question, rather than collectively contributing as a team to finding the information. We had to teach them skills about working in a group, and how they might divide responsibilities to support the task. Another issue is that the children would often just copy the information from the internet without even thinking about what they had written.  Sometimes they wouldn’t even understand the words they were reading. We had to remind them that in SOLE they weren’t there to just copy the information but rather, they had to reflect and analyse on the information they were collecting and if they didn’t understand something, seek out other information to clarify what they had found. We also encouraged them to brainstorm and discuss ideas together rather than to just rely on what they read.  For some big questions, they also sometimes struggled to find any information at all, because they didn’t know how to search for the answer. They would get stuck and frustrated. So, we taught them how to reorganise the question and to think about the key words that might help them. We also encouraged them to not rely only on the internet but to also draw on their knowledge from life and past big questions to think and analyse the question. To test these ideas, we would sometimes go outside and observe things in nature. Now in our SOLE sessions, the group is working in a completely different way. They all work together and collaborate to develop creative and critical responses to the big question. Sometimes, they even choose not to use the internet at all and rather just discuss and brainstorm their own ideas. SOLE encourages our children to work in a different way, one that is more democratic and open. This is the way that our country will develop in the future and having the skills it teaches will ensure that this group of children are actively contributing to a more democratic society.

At the start of the DARE programme, when we asked students to organise themselves into groups as part of SOLE, there were a lot of problems. This is because we had a variety of abilities and ages in a single group. As a result, some children were really strong at reading, writing and using the computers. Others were not and really struggled with these skills. At the start, this led to the older kids and younger kids dividing themselves out into separate groups, and not mixing together. Often, the older kids would finish much more quickly than the younger kids and get frustrated waiting around for the other groups to finish.  Additionally, at the start, there was a lot of yelling and shouting as the groups worked because they felt they needed to speak over each other. And, many groups struggled to divide tasks between them. They would fight and there would be tears over who would use the computer first, and sometimes one or two people would do everything as part of the group while the others would sit there doing nothing. Over time, and through a lot of practice of working together in the SOLE sessions, these dynamics started to change. The students began to learn from their mistakes and past experiences, and also came to realise that there would be future opportunities to do things differently if they didn’t get what they wanted this time around. Younger students started joining the older students’ groups and observing and learning from them. Those who always dominated the groups began to see that they could accomplish more if they worked as a team. The students have learned to cooperate and work together much better than at the start. This is a critical skill for life. 

When we started the SOLE sessions, students from different sections in the same class were brought together for the first time. They would come in and sit with those they knew from their own sections and form groups based on this. They did not want to change groups and would act competitively towards the other groups. So, after asking the DARE management how to deal with this situation, I started to actively force the students to work with new students from other sections. I would pass out candies and then ask students to sit with the others who had the same colour candies as them. Over time, they began to slowly realise that it is not a big deal to work with those that they do not know, and in fact, they could learn from each other, and make new friends. Now in the SOLE sessions, students come in and speak with everyone else in the group. The group is united, despite the fact they come from different sections. And the groups, are different every time. Those who are strong in something, like using Powerpoint, are teaching others how to better use it and present their ideas. Outside of the sessions, this same group of students also engages and supports each other. They speak to each in the hallway and discuss the exams they are now all taking together. For me, seeing this change in this group is important because some of the basic skills we need to develop in our children are the ideas of empathy, communication, tolerance and collaboration. In the age of phones and social media, this is even harder because everyone lives in their own bubble. SOLE is helping students to engage with each other face to face and helping them to be more understanding and less fearful of others.

In July 2019 an independent evaluation of the DARE project was carried out by Dr Ritesh Shah, University of Aukland, New Zealand.  Dr Shah used the Most Significant Change approach and collected 77 impact stories from children, teachers and parents.  

SOLE: An experiment in learning (Teacher, Romania) - At the SOLE training, I felt that the big questions being explored were too general. They were social and ethical questions which were not relevant for me as a physics teacher. I felt I had to make big questions more related to the topic of my class. We started with easy questions to start, things like the life and work of a specific physicists, or questions which have a simple answer, like how a rainbow is created. I told them that every question has an answer and that it is their job to find that information. Each time at the end of the presentation, I would summarise what they had found, but then moderate and provide feedback, highlighting the degree to which they answered the question correctly based on credible information. I also discussed with them some of the key information they missed. I suggested to students that they needed to move beyond looking at just a couple main sources like Wikipedia and Schoolnet, and also look at Powerpoint presentations which they might find online. Over time, the children have become much better at thinking for themselves, questioning the information they find, and being more critical of what other groups present. The children have started to assume my role as a moderator themselves.  For example, one of the physicists we were looking at was André-Marie Ampère. They said that his name was on the Eiffel Tower, and I questioned whether this was right or not. The children were certain this was correct, so during break time they checked again on their phones and after break time proved me wrong. It’s exciting to see these children with confidence and more assured about learning. These are children who will have to make important life decisions. To do this they need to find a range of information and then make good decisions based on that information.

Challenges towards improvement (Teacher, Ukraine)

In our centre each child comes into our sessions with particular behaviours or attitudes
which impact on what happens in the group. At first, I struggled to understand where or how
I could change some of the behaviours I observed which made it difficult for me to manage
the children. One boy, for example was so full of energy while here that he was almost
uncontrollable. He would jump around the classroom, try to escape and not take anything
seriously. Another boy would never clean up at the end of our sessions despite me nagging
him continuously. Because our SOLE sessions run at the end of the day, I am often here
when the parents come to pick their children up. These parents would often ask about their
children and their participation. At first, I didn’t give too much attention or effort into
speaking with these parents. In fact, for some of them, I didn’t even know their names or
whose parent they were. But then I was given the responsibility of organising and managing
the parent groups and sessions as part of the DARE programme. If I am honest, I would say
this has been a really frustrating thing for me to manage because I put a lot of time and effort
into organising events and activities for them, but often very few show up. I might invite 20
parents, but only 4 actually come. On the other hand, I’ve come to see how much these
children are impacted by their parents. For the boy with lots of energy, for example, I
discovered the reason he is so full of energy here in the centre is because his mother
controls him so tightly at home. He comes to the centre and just needs to unwind. The boy
who never cleans up has a mother who never asks him to clean up either. No wonder he
doesn’t take responsibility for this! While the formal sessions I’ve organised for parents
haven’t always been a success, I’ve become more observant in noticing the interactions
between parents and children in more informal activities we have, like movie nights or
parties. I’ve come to understand the children and their behaviour through their home
environment and now have a lot more patience and sympathy for some of the challenging
behaviours I have to deal with in the centre.

Be confident (Social worker, Ukraine) - In the SOLE sessions, we work in a very different way. The children have a lot of independence and freedom to organise themselves, express their ideas, and present what they have learned. For many children this is not easy. They come from an environment where children are not encouraged or supported to discuss what they are thinking and are

sometimes punished for being wrong. In schools they are taught information and not how to
express their thoughts. This makes it really difficult to implement SOLE at the start. One
boy in my group, for example, refused to participate the first 3-4 times. He would just stand
by the door and observe what was going on. I encouraged him to be part of the group but
did not force him to participate. Slowly, he decided on his own to join the group, first by
completing a small task like writing something down on a piece of paper, and later by
presenting the information to the class. I’ve also tried to encourage children to not rely
solely on the internet or other printed information to answer the big question. Many of the
ones I work with are young and cannot read or write. Instead, I’ve gotten them to come up
with answers to the big question based on their own ideas and opinions. Sometimes they
come up with really creative and interesting ideas this way, and I always try to encourage
this. I keep reminding them that it doesn’t matter if what they say is correct or incorrect. It is
only afterwards that I’ll present them with the correct information. In my group now, the
children have a lot more confidence to express their ideas and speak their opinions. They
are not afraid to say what is on their mind. This is important because this generation should
be confident in their choices and what they want to do, both for their schooling and beyond.

Everyday paths of life (Social worker, Romania) We opened up the centre in this community in 2016. When we started, we also did a range of activities with children, and their parents. Much of this work was focussed around different holidays celebrated in the community, where we would run open days, hold celebrations and invite parents and children to be part of the festivities. There was, however, less structure to the work we were doing. When DARE came along, we were introduced to a range of new activities like the SOLE, children’s parliament, mindfulness and parenting sessions. We had to, however, find an alternative to the models presented to us because of the challenges we face with the population in our community. For example, many of the children do not have very good literacy and may have never seen or used a computer before. Doing SOLE as we were taught, using laptops, searching for information, and writing or presenting ideas on what was found was nearly impossible with this group. Instead, we came up with the idea of Art SOLE, where we would build their self-confidence, communication and being part of a community, but without the internet. We did things like trust walks where we would blindfold the children and ask them to lead another. This helped the children to trust each other, overcome some of the prejudice and racism they face, and to communicate with each other more productively. We also adapted the parent groups and sessions and decided to have a psychologist who would organise meetings to discuss topics

of interest to their parents themselves. While many of the trainings through DARE provided a good start, we had to come back and think about how to make it work for our community.  It meant going beyond the support through DARE and finding additional resources, ideas and information on our own. Because of the challenges and stresses of working in this role,  DARE also supported my own well-being and introduced me to the idea of mindfulness. I now practice what we learned every day or couple days. It helps me to cleanse both my body and soul and makes me appreciative and thankful for what I have. Through all these experiences, I feel much more empowered and able to work in this community and in this centre. I feel I now have stronger relations with the children and their parents, and greater confidence and knowledge on how to address some of the big challenges we face here.  And through working with the children and parents, they are now inspiring and pushing us to do more. For example, mothers are now asking us to run literacy classes for them and we’re thinking that we’d like to do this using SOLE with them as well. While this is a process and still ongoing, the support received through DARE has contributed to our growth as a team.

Through struggle we’ve reached the stars (Social Worker, Ukraine)

There is a problem with this generation. They’ve lost the ability to communicate with each other face to face. This is a product of both the internet and technology, and home environments today where many children no longer spend time speaking with their parents because they are too busy with work. Instead, children are focussed on their devices and connecting with people on their phones. As an example of this, a few years ago in our school, the hallways and yard would be noisy and rambunctious during breaktimes with students talking to each other. Now during breaktimes, you often wonder if the students have all left the school because it is so quiet. The reason it is so quiet is because they are all on their phones and not actually speaking to each other. I observe this in class as well. Students have become very afraid of sharing their ideas in front of the class and have lost the ability to express their feelings to others. This worries me and the other teachers at our school greatly. When we started SOLE many of these problems also existed in the group.  The students did not know how to cooperate and communicate with each other. They were very timid when it came time to present their work. Often it was only the students who were academically strong who took on the roles of presenting information and leading the group.  Over time, though, the students came to realise that there is no wrong answer and that they will not be judged, by me or the other students for what they say. They will not be assessed on their work in SOLE. Additionally, and with the encouragement of their peers, students who were not naturally strong at presenting or leading were given an opportunity to serve in these roles. Through SOLE they gained confidence, and many of the less academically strong students realised they are natural leaders or speakers. I too have also had to change from my traditional role as a strict person of authority, to that of friend and partner. Slowly this has opened up the communication within the group, including with me as their teacher. They have learned how to share their ideas and emotions, and now many can speak comfortably in front of others. It is only through communication that we can work together as a community and help each other to solve problems we face.

 The change (Teacher, Moldova)

We live in an age where many of our children are focussed on themselves. You see this in
the way they walk through the halls on their phones rather than looking up and speaking to
each other. In general, this generation seems more selfish and not communicating with
each other. They are not really involved in extra activities in the school and not volunteering
themselves to enhance their school community. In class are also quite timid and not willing
to stand in front of the class. Two years ago, the SOLE sessions were introduced to a
group of students in our school. The children were provided an environment where they had
to work together, take initiative on their own, learn how to communicate and collaborate with
each other, and present their ideas. At first, you noticed that even within this environment,
the students still worked individually, and didn’t really collaborate. Over time though, and
with my guidance and encouragement, they started to change. They began to cooperate
and develop and share their ideas to the big question, not as individuals, but as a group.
Working in this way has slowly influenced the way this group of students are within the
school. You see them now speaking freely to each other socially in the hallways during the
school day and participating actively in class. Importantly, this group of students have
become leaders in the school, and eager to organise activities on behalf of the student body.
Given that the goal of our school is to raise good citizens—which requires important qualities
such as open communication, tolerance and collaboration—the SOLE sessions have been
critical to us achieving this goal. It helps our students to be more engaged with each other,
their community, and eventually their country.

The story of success (Social pedagogue, Ukraine)

At the start of the DARE programme, when we asked students to organise themselves into
groups as part of SOLE, there were a lot of problems. This is because we had a variety of
abilities and ages in a single group. As a result, some children were really strong at reading,
writing and using the computers. Others were not and really struggled with these skills. At
the start, this led to the older kids and younger kids dividing themselves out into separate
groups, and not mixing together. Often, the older kids would finish much more quickly than
the younger kids and get frustrated waiting around for the other groups to finish.
Additionally, at the start, there was a lot of yelling and shouting as the groups worked
because they felt they needed to speak over each other. And, many groups struggled to
divide tasks between them. They would fight and there would be tears over who would use
the computer first, and sometimes one or two people would do everything as part of the
group while the others would sit there doing nothing. Over time, and through a lot of
practice of working together in the SOLE sessions, these dynamics started to change. The
students began to learn from their mistakes and past experiences, and also came to realise
that there would be future opportunities to do things differently if they didn’t get what they
wanted this time around. Younger students started joining the older students’ groups and
observing and learning from them. Those who always dominated the groups began to see
that they could accomplish more if they worked as a team. The students have learned to
cooperate and work together much better than at the start. This is a critical skill for life. When we started the SOLE sessions, students from different sections in the same class were brought together for the first time. They would come in and sit with those they knew from their own sections and form groups based on this. They did not want to change groups and would act competitively towards the other groups. So, after asking the DARE management how to deal with this situation, I started to actively force the students to work with new students from other sections. I would pass out candies and then ask students to sit with the others who had the same colour candies as them. Over time, they began to slowly realise that it is not a big deal to work with those that they do not know, and in fact, they could learn from each other, and make new friends. Now in the SOLE sessions, students come in and speak with everyone else in the group. The group is united, despite the fact they come from different sections. And the groups, are different every time. Those who are strong in something, like using Powerpoint, are teaching others how to better use it and present their ideas. Outside of the sessions, this same group of students also engages and supports each other. They speak to each in the hallway and discuss the exams they are now all taking together. For me, seeing this change in this group is important because some of the basic skills we need to develop in our children are the ideas of empathy, communication, tolerance and collaboration. In the age of phones and social media, this is even harder because everyone lives in their own bubble. SOLE is helping students to engage with each other face to face and helping them to be more understanding and less fearful of others.

Living in the internet age (Social pedagogue, Moldova)

When we started the SOLE programme, and I tasked groups with answering the big
question and finding information on the internet, there were a lot of challenges. Many times,
and to get the task done as quickly as possible, they would just look at the first site that
came up in a search and copy that information down—whether it was correct or not, and
whether it answered the question or not. Many did not even really engage with what they
were writing down and so could not fully explain what they had copied. At the same time,
they also had a lot of questions about how to search the internet. They wanted to know
things like where to search, how much information they needed to find, and what they
needed to write down. As a teacher, I encouraged them to find sources which were more
accessible and understandable to them—for example sites with pictures or videos. I also
tried to get students to go beyond looking at the first page of search results, and to look at
multiple pages. When students presented what they found, I encouraged them to debate
the different answers they came up with to get them to understand that there are many
different perspectives on the internet, and that not all of them are as valid or evidence based.
For the more difficult big questions, I taught them how to reformulate the question
and search for keywords related to that question. Now the students are able to search for
the right information, filter the information they read, and find information that is accessible
and understandable to them. It allows me to assume the role of a facilitator who can sit back
and just observe as the students go off and search and synthesise what they are looking for.
For these students, having these skills in the information age we live in is important. They
need to understand how to engage with what is out there, and to not just accept everything
they read.

My domesticated wolf (Caregiver, Moldova)

Since the age of 10, I’ve had a girl in my house who I have been taking care of. She came
from a very socially deprived background. She had lived in several other temporary homes,
after her mother had been forced to go abroad to earn a living. When she came to live in
our house she was like a wolf. She barely spoke or communicated with anyone, including
myself. She had no social skills at all and would eat her food in a corner quickly and with a
guilty look on her face. She was also afraid of everything…you could even see it in her
eyes. She was also very selfish and didn’t really consider others around her, in part
because she had always grown up by herself and hadn’t really engaged with others. She
stated coming to the centre here a couple years later, and as part of that participated in the
SOLE programme when it started. I noticed that through SOLE she learned to take into
account the feelings and needs of others, and also became much more sociable. She made
a number of new friends and became more willing to engage in the life of the home, her
school and her community. For example, when my sick aunt moved into my house, she
would come home after school and feed her lunch before she would eat lunch herself. This
was without me asking. This year she went off to study in Romania. I think the SOLE
programme helped her in living in this new environment, and to not be afraid of the change
of studying abroad. Because of this, she is now top of her class and is no longer the solitary
wolf she once was.

Leadership: A skill for the future (Social worker, Moldova)

When we started the SOLE programme, and children were split into groups, I noticed that
one of the big challenges we faced is that children did not know how to manage their
independence and freedom. They needed some support to manage themselves, to work as
a group, and to share responsibilities for completing the task. For example, some children
took control of the group, while others just sat there quietly. This is because some of these
children were already confident, or older and more assertive; while others were afraid to
share their ideas. As a social pedagogue, I worked hard to try to change this. I ensured
that each session, the groups were comprised differently so that the leaders of the group of
the time previous were placed into different groups the next time. This meant that they had
to learn to compromise with others, and other children had the opportunity to step up and be
a leader. And children slowly discovered their own talents, and voluntarily contributed these
talents to their groups. At the same time, the leadership tasks became more distributed in
the group, so that everyone shared some responsibility for contributing to what the group
presents at the end. For example, one child would take responsibility for keeping track of
the time, while another would take responsibility for thinking about how to best present the
group’s ideas. SOLE has helped children to discover the different talents they have and allowed them to lead in different ways both within our centre, and outside. It has enabled them to understand that there is no single leader in society, and that in our family and community life we all have something to contribute.

 Special needs in the focus (Social worker, Moldova)

When we started DARE, I found it really challenging to engage parents in the programme. I
would invite 20 parents, but only three would show up. I realised after a bit of time that
parents of the children attending SOLE did not want to be taught how to be a better parent.
However, I started observing that outside the special education room on the first floor of the
school, the parents of children with special needs would often hang outside the room. They
would sit there, waiting for their children and doing nothing. So, I started inviting the parents
spending time outside the room to have a tea or coffee with me, first individually and then in
small groups. Slowly the parents started to speak to each other, and together we would
make small handicrafts or initiate some small community engagement activities like visiting a
home for children with cancer, or an elderly home. At the same time, I started to invite
specialists to come speak to these parents, based on their interests and concerns. Now the 

parents are organising themselves, and I just help to support and facilitate their interest.
Recently, they organised an exposition in the school, to make others aware of what it means
to create an inclusive school community for everyone. And, they have now decided to
establish their own association of parents of children with disabilities. Unlike other parents
who have kids who are sick, these parents deal with disabilities that cannot be cured. This
creates a lot of stress in their lives and often they feel alone in dealing with it. At the same
time, they have a lot of free time, because many are not working, but do not know what to do
when their child is in school. Through the parent support group, we’ve managed to create a
community which is now supporting others in need outside the school. They also now have
a place to support each other and make others aware about the needs of their children. This
helps them to better deal with the stress in their lives, while also strengthening the
community as a whole.

My rebirth (Teacher, Ukraine)

I’ve been part of the leadership of the school for some time. As a leader, I used to be
incredibly authoritarian. Everyone was afraid of me—my colleagues, the students, and their
families. People didn’t feel they could talk to me and could never really tell me what they
were thinking or feeling. A lot of this had to do with my attitude at that time. I carried on with
an attitude that I was above them in the sky. Even before the DARE programme started,
and because of personal challenges I faced, I realised the need to change. My way of being
was suffocating me and those around me. I didn’t like being so lonely in my power, and
realised I needed to gain more empathy and understanding of others. So, when I started
facilitating the SOLE session, I had already started to change, but SOLE was useful
medicine to force me to continue to improve. For instance, when I first facilitated the SOLE
sessions, the children were terrified to say anything. But then, as they realised, I was not
there to control them things moved in the opposite direction. They grew uncontrollable, and
I sometimes had to say something 10 times to get them to listen to me. This was also
unmanageable. With the help of the others in my school who were also implementing
SOLE, I was able to find a solution which worked for me. Having this experience as a
teacher of a new programme, rather than just as an administrator supervising it, gave me a
new appreciation for how hard it is to change things. I helped me to understand that
changing the way you teach takes time, and that you aren’t able to achieve results
immediately. This impacts now on the way I evaluate and understand the work of teachers
who are trialling something new. I have a lot more patience now for the time this takes.
Being part of SOLE has helped me to be less authoritarian. I needed this medicine as it has
helped me to see the errors of my past ways. The result is now parents, children and other
members of staff are no longer afraid to approach me. I’ve become connected to them in a
way that I never managed to do before.

 The joy of being together (Social pedagogue, Romania)

When I first arrived here in the centre, I observed that when we were doing the SOLE
sessions, the children did not really understand how to work together as a group. Some
children were natural leaders and they tended to boss the others around. It was these same
children who always dominated the tasks required as part the SOLE. And so, those who
were not involved would often leave the group out of boredom, and the groups did not really
function as planned. I decided that it was important to encourage and find ways to get all
children involved more in the groups, but not to tell them directly what to do. So, for the
children who were regularly leaving the group, I set up a space where they could play
outside the group. At the same time, I would make sure to speak to them and encourage
them as much as I could to rejoin the activity when they felt ready to. For those who were
the natural leaders, I praised their abilities, but also discussed how it might be more effective
if they delegated tasks and responsibilities amongst all members of the group. At the same
time, I realised that I need to come up with questions and activities which built on the
interests, strengths, and learning styles of all the children. Some children are, for example
more interested in reading and writing things, while others like to draw, and others need to
experiment and touch. When I search for questions, I try to find ones which allow students
to explore and present their discoveries in different ways. I always try to bring an element of
novelty to the group. Slowly, the situation has improved. The natural leaders are now
delegating tasks better. Those children who used to leave and remain out of the group, are
making efforts to return to the group as soon as possible. In part, this is because they all
now see their usefulness and importance to the task. I believe that it is only through working
together that this generation of children will be successful with all their future aspirations.
This is because as humans, we are social beings who are connected to everyone around us.
We do not live alone, but in communities and we need to learn to live and work alongside
each other.

Behind an enlightened child, stands a teacher (Teacher, Moldova)

When I first started facilitating SOLE sessions in our school, it was quite a challenge for me
to engage with the children. This is because the children only knew me as the adjunct
director of the school and were a bit timid and shy to speak freely around me. They saw
me as a person of authority and not someone they could joke and express their thoughts
and feelings with. While normally, as the adjunct director, I have to be very serious, in
SOLE sessions I could joke and be more personal with them. I would start each session
asking them how they were feeling and making eye contact with each of them. I also smile
at them. Slowly, I have managed to set up a good relationship with the kids. They now see
me in a different way, and more like a friend. Every session, the students come in and greet
me warmly with a hug. Because of this, I have gotten to know this group of children well.
This helps me to better and ensure that I can shape the sessions around their needs,
interests and feelings. For me to help support the development of these children’s life skills,
I’ve discovered how important it is to build strong relationships with these children first.

From a snowball to an avalanche (Teacher, Moldova)

When we first started SOLE, I observed there were many problems with the way the children
were working. For one, when they were working in groups they would work as individuals on
answering the big question, rather than collectively contributing as a team to finding the
information. We had to teach them skills about working in a group, and how they might

divide responsibilities to support the task. Another issue is that the children would often just
copy the information from the internet without even thinking about what they had written.
Sometimes they wouldn’t even understand the words they were reading. We had to remind
them that in SOLE they weren’t there to just copy the information but rather, they had to
reflect and analyse on the information they were collecting and if they didn’t understand
something, seek out other information to clarify what they had found. We also encouraged
them to brainstorm and discuss ideas together rather than to just rely on what they read.
For some big questions, they also sometimes struggled to find any information at all,
because they didn’t know how to search for the answer. They would get stuck and
frustrated. So, we taught them how to reorganise the question and to think about the key
words that might help them. We also encouraged them to not rely only on the internet but to
also draw on their knowledge from life and past big questions to think and analyse the
question. To test these ideas, we would sometimes go outside and observe things in nature.
Now in our SOLE sessions, the group is working in a completely different way. They all
work together and collaborate to develop creative and critical responses to the big question.
Sometimes, they even choose not to use the internet at all and rather just discuss and
brainstorm their own ideas. SOLE encourages our children to work in a different way, one
that is more democratic and open. This is the way that our country will develop in the future
and having the skills it teaches will ensure that this group of children are actively contributing
to a more democratic society.