The challenge of the project
Adolescents and (young) adults living in a (closed) institution or prison are restricted in their freedom. This also affects their access to the digital world. For example, detainees in Belgium cannot access the Internet or use a smartphone, tablet or laptop.
Goal of the project
Triangle wants to make the digital world more accessible for adolescents and (young) adults in (closed) institutions and prisons. To this end, we offer tailor-made access via a secure online (learning) platform. We focus on inmates in prison who follow an education through the group offer or study through an individual educational pathway. Because access to modern communication, presentation and information techniques promotes reintegration.
What do we do?
Triangle is an international collaboration between organisations from three European countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal. Through Triangle, we develop a digital learning platform, in the Flemish prisons the focus is on making existing educational platforms accessible. We combine the knowledge and expertise of our partners to design and test an innovative, safe, tailor-made blended learning environment for closed (youth) institutions and prisons.
Triangle’s Platform Storyline
Since January 2023, the Triangle team has been working on the second phase of the project. The results are captured in the report Triangle’s Platform Storyline. Programme Triangle: Create contours for the method of Triangle. The report explains how the Triangle environment works and what choices can be made to create a secure digital learning environment within closed contexts. The report answers questions that are important at this stage: What are the concrete expectations of the platform? What does the Triangle web environment look like? How does the security of the Chromebooks work? What are the methods for offering information or teaching materials via the platform?
Pilots
From May 2023, several partners started the first pilot phase of the project. The first pilot phase focuses on whether Triangle’s content matches what detainees and young people need and whether the Triangle platform is user-friendly for the target group. In the Netherlands, Triangle is starting in the De Hartelborgt Juvenile Detention Centre and the Lelystad Penitentiary. In Flanders, some tests of the Triangle platform already took place in June. Thereafter the platform was also tested in one of the classrooms of the penitentiary complex in Bruges, during the lesson Learning to Learn. In addition, we are investigating in each country through questionnaires among users whether the platform meets their needs.
Partner meeting in Lisbon in September 2023
The Triangle partners met in Lisbon from 11 to 13 September 2023. We had some productive working days together. The programme included sessions on the progress of the pilots, the elaboration of the assessments, the processing of the feedback received and the dissemination of the results achieved in the Triangle project. We also visited the Navarro de Paiva Education Centre, the Portuguese equivalent of our community institutions for juvenile (suspected) offenders.
Here we were given a comprehensive tour.
Photo: visit to the ‘Education Centre Navarro de Paiva’ with Triangle team
Triangle team to two international conferences
The Triangle team hosts workshops at two international conferences on education in the prison system. As the Triangle team, we see it as an opportunity to showcase the cooperation within the Erasmus+ programme and its impact at these conferences.
EPEA conference in June 2023
From 13 – 17 June 2023, we participated in the EPEA (European Prison Education Association) conference Education in prison. Everyday challenges, experiences and solutions in Tønsberg in Norway. Alice Erens and Aurelia Bijnens gave a presentation on Thursday 15 June to educators associated with various closed (youth) institutions and prisons across Europe. During the workshop, they discussed what the Triangle project aims to achieve and how the People Platform
Program approach works.
Photo: at the EPEA conference 2023 in Tønsberg, Norway.
ICPA conference in October 2023
From 23 – 27 October 2023, the Triangle team will be represented at the ICPA (International Corrections and Prisons Association) conference Humane Corrections: What more can we do? in Antwerp. Kristoff Hemelinckx, Kris Lambert, Aurelia Bijnens and Marjolein Rammelaere will give a workshop on Wednesday 25 October 2023 about the Triangle platform and its use in Belgian prisons. .
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