Years of research on social-emotional education (SEE) show positive impact in fostering emotionally strong, responsible and self-determined future citizen who may actively and positively contribute to the life of their communities. Challenges and threats to these skills are continuous and threaten well-being and mental health, participation and life planning. Counselling psychology plays a crucial role in supporting the development of social-emotional competences from an early age as well as increasing awareness and strategic policy and practices in several stakeholders thus pursue a preventive aim.

In 2019, a few months before the pandemic, the psSMILE Network started its work under the flag of the Erasmus+ programs (2019-1-LT01-KA201-060710; PSsmile.emundus.eu). The project partners comprised VšĮ ‘eMundus’ (Lithuania), CuBu Foundation (CuBuFo; Romania), University of Padua (Italy), 4-Elements (Greece), Associao para a Recuperacao de Cidadaos Inadaptados da Lousa (A.R.C.I.L.; Portugal), and Viesoji istaiga Mano seimos akademija (Lituania).

Having its root in the counselling psychology, the project aimed to contribute to the construction of emotionally competent and inclusive communities that are attentive to the well-being of all members and where significant adults, especially parents and teachers, take care of their own social-emotional competence and promote their development in children.

Focusing initially on significant adults, therefore, main targets of the project included: (a) Empowering especially teachers and parents in their community of reference with effective tools to guide their children's social-emotional development more successfully; (b) Enhancing, through a tailored training, the ability of primary school teachers to successfully teach and develop children's social-emotional skills and developing a network of professionals able to reflect and boost the SEE; (c) Implementing programs aimed at developing children's social-emotional skills that are essential to better understand themselves and their classmates and guide their behaviour; (d) Raising awareness in the local and also the European community about the importance of SEE for children.

The project outcomes and the impact produced in the communities that entered in contact with it could be summarised in four main areas as follow:

• Partners' activities and products underpinning impacts. The partnership produced several useful and easy to use materials among which we can list an open access e-book offering the theoretical framework and principles, guiding teachers in conducting activities; a collection of good practices for partners and teachers; a training programme manual to develop social-emotional skills in children; an App for the development of social-emotional skills in adults, mainly parents and teachers; an e-learning course for building social-emotional skills in educators and people interested.
  
  
• Educational value for the communities. The educational communities, parents and teachers involved had the opportunity to develop knowledge about emotional intelligence, social-emotional learning and the most effective ways of developing specific interventions and actions in the light of the project aims.
  The realisation of public school-parents-students event and the publication of scientific articles (Bortoluzzi et al., 2021; Sgaramella et al., 2022a; 2022b) further amplified the impact of the project by making the results available to a wider audience. As a valuable result, the European Commission, Directorate General for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport awarded the project with the 2024 European Innovative Teaching Award.
  
  More specifically teachers who participated in the trainings and implemented the curriculum emphasised that participation in the training contributed to their personal and professional growth, as well as that of their students, fostering the development of a general sense of well-being and satisfaction in the group. Participation in the curriculum made them better prepared to face professional challenges related to post-pandemic changes and complex local and global social situations. The regular group counselling provided to teachers in their work was crucial, as was taking the time to help them understand the importance of working to develop a positive (personal and social) perspective on the future in all their students.
  

• Social dimensions of impact. The project facilitated the growth of the educational context and the quality of the educational offer; it fostered involvement and cooperation among university, teachers and principals, parents’ groups, and students, emphasising and promoting the importance of introducing curricula and activities that stimulate social-emotional learning in school and home environments. Innovative methodologies, multidisciplinary approaches, development of key competences (knowledge, skills and attitudes) and evaluation (formative assessment), linking formal, non-formal and informal learning, inclusion, participation, cooperation, active role of the learner in the learning process, cooperation with external stakeholders were the driving principles proposed and implemented.
  
  
• Cultural dimensions of impact. Schools positioned themselves as promoters of innovation, for the construction of a positive school climate, making sustainable use of available resources and the learning conveyed in the training courses. Teachers were recognised as having an active role in the innovation process, for well-being, cooperation and peer learning. Parents were directly involved in the activities and analysis of the learning. Children were regularly called to provide their feedback, and their needs were carefully considered. Collaboration between different countries also enabled a cultural exchange and comparison of experiences, further enriching the training content.
  
  
• Added value for shaping educational communities. Several seeds of the project are continuing to produce fruits, despite it officially ended. At this regard, the development of an educational community across the country, sensitive to this topic and the quality of the results pursued were crucial.
  
  At regional level, for the current school year, thanks to the work done until now, a school district in the Northeast of Italy that started to provide SEE with the project asked the university team for designing an additional module on SEE, career counselling and digitalization to be realised in middle school.
  
  At national level, since 2020, alongside lectures in master's and single-cycle degree courses and in advanced courses, the project has been presented in the specialisation courses for Support Teachers offered by the University of Padova, in which approximately 400 teachers from different school orders and grades participate each year. Additionally, in the last school year (s.y. 2023-24) together with the Provincial Network of Schools for Inclusiveness in the South of Italy, 100 teachers, from schools of different orders and grades, participated in a new upskilling course focusing on inclusive, relational, emotional and social challenges.

References

Bortoluzzi, M., Sgaramella, T. M., Ferrari, L., Drąsutė, V., & Šarauskytė, V. (2021). Building emotionally stable, inclusive, and healthy communities with ICT: From state of the art to PSsmile app. In Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good: 7th EAI International Conference, GOODTECHS 2021, Proceedings 7 (pp. 163-178). Springer International Publishing.

Sgaramella, T. M., Ferrari, L., Drasutè, V., Bortoluzzi, M., & Corradi, S. (2022a). Parents as active agents in building emotionally stable, and healthy communities: Testing PSsmile App. In International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good (pp. 39-53). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.

Sgaramella, T.M., Ferrari, L., & Bortoluzzi, M. (2022b). Social-emotional competencies, positive experience at school and future orientation: development and relationships in primary school children. In C. Pracana, M. Wang (Eds.) Psychology Applications & Developments (Vol. 8, pp. 181-190). inScience Press.