Intervention Framework for Prevention in Public Schools

The research project, Teachers, Schools and Communities: Strengthening Secure Spaces, addresses social dynamics of schools and communities in local contexts of gang presence and insecurity in El Salvador. When insecurity, —for instance, gang-related conflicts, threats of violence, or extortion— prevent youth from attending school or schools’ from developing the curriculum, a silent emergency develops. Important life, social and employment skills are not learned, while poverty, exclusion and insecurity are reproduced.

This document is the result of the research project “Teachers, Schools and Communities: A Framework for Improving Basic Education in Gang-controlled Territories”, a product of the research agreement between the Dubai Cares Foundation and the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas (UCA) of El Salvador, Central America. This grant was received through the Evidence for Education in Emergencies (E-Cubed) Research Envelope, in partnership with the Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). The project was carried out in the period of September 2019 – July 2022 and resulted in the crafting of the intervention framework for violence prevention in schools Context- Actions -Relationships (CAR).

The intervention framework “Context–Actions–Relations” (CAR) is a tool that orients school-based prevention initiatives with three fundamental pillars: a) contextualization or the adaption of the intervention to the local setting; b) participatory actions, involving local actors, school staff and the educational community in the design and implementation process; and c) the investment in social relations, that is, building close relationships with a broad range of local actors. These three pillars traverse the whole intervention, with the empowerment of the public schools as the leading principle. The objective of CAR is to promote the inclusion of relationships among local actors and the local social dynamics as an integral part of school-based prevention.