In 2006, the Finnish government decided that bullying prevention is a priority. A contract was made between the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture & the University of Turku to develop a nationwide, research-based antibullying program to be evaluated and tested. The KiVa program was launched in 2009 for national use.
KiVa program is based on three elements: prevention, intervention and monitoring. KiVa offers a wide range of concrete tools and materials for schools to reduce multiple forms of victimization including verbal, physical and cyberbullying. KiVa’s methodology includes both universal and indicated actions.
Universal actions are the core of prevention and are targeted to all children. The program is adapted to the kids’ age and includes videos, presentation materials for the student lessons, instructions for tackling cases of bullying, online game and other online material.
Indicated actions are to tackle bullying cases that come to attention to the school personnel. They are targeted to the children who have been involved in bullying. The goal is to provide schools and students with solution-focused tools to put an end to bullying.
In addition, KiVa schools can monitor their progress in antibullying work with feedback based on annual student and staff survey.
KiVa is spreading through scientific publications in top-tier international journals, word of mouth from KiVa licensed partners, the University of Turku’ strong international network, close work with the Finnish National Agency for Education and attending conferences where Finnish education is represented; and also our Facebook page.
Within the past 2 years, we have managed to continue our operations and development with our KiVa schools despite the pandemic. We have been able to pursue our collaboration with our long term partners and new schools joined the KiVa network especially European and International schools.
For the next years, we wish KiVa to be available to many more schools, especially to be present in the U.S.A and Canada and to reinforce our operations in Latin America.
When bringing KiVa to a new region, we aim to find the best suitable partner to ensure a sustainable cooperation. Our model is based on licensing fees, agreed upon through a licensing agreement.
We are happy to arrange a meeting to present the content of the program in more detail and send some sample material. You can contact us at kiva@kivaprogram.net
