There has to be another way, and there is another way.
EDPEP stands for European Dissemination Platform for Education in prison (EDPEP). On the initiative of the Dutch branch of the European Prison Education Association (EPEANL), EDPEP will be developed with partners from Norway, Poland, Portugal and Rumania from October 2023 till November 2025.
Persons and organizations working in European countries have much knowledge, expertise and experience in education in detention. However, it remains within their own organization and is hardly shared with others in their own country and abroad. As a result, this wealth of information remains unshared, unassessed and unused by third parties. EDPEP is a system to keep this knowledge available, up-to-date and active in a growing network in Europe.
In the 1st phase of the EDPEP project, the project participants defined the concept for the construction and operation of the platform and discussed the further planning. In recent months, the prison-education-wiki.eu has been successfully built and a user manual and instructions for the moderators have been drawn up. In the coming months, trainers will be instructed in each representing one of the 5 regions of Europe (North, East, South, West and Central).
Through the use of the platform, all people who are involved in one way or another in ‘education in detention’ can inform each other, learn from each other and communicate with each other. SO READ ON AND JOIN IN!
The engine of EDPEP consists of three active steps interacting with- and linked to eachother. Key-figures in the five regions in Europe will moderate and up-date these three steps and invite their network to join the three steps community and share information about their projects, conferences, presentations and websites like for instance www.epea.org.
Join the EDPEP community in the following ways
Join our wiki with your project: https://www.prison-education-wiki.eu/ is a searchable database of projects publications, tools and resources that captures all fields related to education in prison. It is relevant for educators, facilitators, stakeholders and managers involved in prison education as well as inmates and ex-offenders.
How: Sent a Word document or a link to your project on your website to: edpep4eu@gmail.com we insert it in the wiki and link it in the next EDPEP newsletter.
Join our EPALE/EDPEP group: EPALE is a European, multilingual, open membership community of adult learning professionals, including adult educators and trainers, guidance and support staff, researchers and academics, and policymakers. funded by the Erasmus+ program. https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/communities-of-practice?search=EDPEP&langcode=en
How: Sent us your email and we will send you an EPALE invitation. (You can only join the EPALE community if you have or make an account).
Become a member of the EDPEP LinkedIn-group: We post the new updates in this LinkedIn group and you can post news in it by yourself. https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13003241
How: Click on the link above and become a member by clicking on the blue join button and invite other people out of your LinkedIn network
In April, the Portuguese branch of EPEA (APEnP) held its International Congress in the field of prison education: “Path and Challenges”. The Congress took place in Montijo (near Lisbon). With more than 40 speakers and over 200 participants this event promoted a space to present and discuss good practice, research and projects. As project leader, Frans lemmers had the opportunity to inform the attendees about the EDPEP.
With the platform, those involved in prison education can ‘post’ their reports, research, best practices, etc., to ensure that they come to the attention of their colleagues anywhere in Europe. He made it clear that, for example, a report on a project could be posted on the platform in Portuguese and that by pressing the button of the ‘translation machine’ included in the prison-eudcation-wiki.eu, this contribution could be read into Dutch by a colleague in the Netherlands. And vice versa, of course. Afterwards, surprised, but very positive, reactions were heard and we hope that it will be put into operation, not only in Portugal but in all other European countries.
Do you have any questions, comments or suggestions?
Don’t hesitate to contact EDPEP project leader
Frans Lemmers: lemmers.frans@gmail.com