Municipality of Dolna Mitropolia traditionally offers for large public discussion the problems with violence and children aggression. Convinced that young people should be aware that they are not alone with their problems, in November 2001 the Municipality organized round table Protection of our children . Subsequently, a Discussion Council for social adaptation of young people has been established. The discussion forum Stop Violence is a natural continuation of the dialog started at the round table.

The forum was organized as a part of the program of the Local commission for resisting the antisocial actions of minors and juveniles for 2002 2003 school year. The forum was held during the Anti-violence World Days, celebrated each year in December. The idea of the initiators was to unite the efforts of people of different social spheres in order to develop dialog and collaboration on the problems with violence. Project partners of the Municipality of Dolna Mitropolia were Regional Police Department Pleven, Division Press-center and public relations of the Police Department, and Posrednik Newspaper. Students participated in a preliminary essay contest How to stop violence , the results of which were announced at the forum. Forum participants actively took part in three preliminary defined modules:

A. Preventive Programs and Activities

The Chief of Regional Police Department of Dolna Mitropolia made an introductory summary of the subject. The speaker pointed out as effective forms of preventive work the reception rooms that have been opened in the towns of the municipality, as well as the police bulletin of the committed crimes, broadcast on the local radio stations. The project partners presented the Prevention program of , parts of which are the school training module and the discussion forum. The inspector of the Regional Police Department made parallel comparison between the Bulgarian reality and the foreign experience in violence prevention.

B. Institutions and family against violence

The Director of ODZ Zdravets Dolna Mitropolia shared the experience of the successful practice of informal meetings with parents, using the methods of group dynamics. He also presented the new details in the work of the DPS inspectors and their interaction with the other institutions.

C. Media and Violence

The editor-in-chief of Posrednik newspaper Pleven outlined the possibilities for the media to stand against violence through cut down the chronicles of crimes and start popularizing the achievements of young people in the areas of arts, sports, and science.

Each module was closed with a discussion on the presented topics.

The forum announced the results of the student essay contest and awarded some of the participants. Thirty-one students from six municipal schools participated. The jury set the following criteria: profound vision of the topic, personal opinion, accurate language use, argumentation with examples and illustrations, clear definition of the problem, types of violence and reasons for causing it, pointed answer of the question How to stop violence? . The forum gave out six awards, two for first, second and third places, as well as four encouraging awards. Both first place essays were published in Posrednik . The newspaper presented the work of the forum on a whole page.

1. The student training module practically proved the efficiency of preventive forms of fight against violence. The results of the contest and the essay analysis showed that the students were very well prepared on the subject.

2. Aiming the achievement of better information spread, the project partners published a brochure that explains different types of violence, avoiding violence ways of behavior, normative regulations and telephone numbers that could be dialed for assistance.

3. Forum participants prepared and voted a Declaration for collaboration among the institutions working on the problems of children criminal behavior on the territory of Municipality of Dolna Mitropolia

4. Partnership with Posrednik newspaper largely popularized the project activities.

5. There were constructive prepositions for future joint work among the various institutions through the organization of School for Parents; multiplication of the successful training practices at all municipal schools.