IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY FOR JUVENILE JUSTICE, TUNISIA

ATI helped to implement the communication strategy for social and behavioral change for juvenile justice in Tunisia as part of the justice reform support program between September 2016 and May 2017.

The project was implemented by UNICEF Tunisia as part of a project funded by the European Union. The aim of the project was to make parents, professionals and children themselves active players in the prevention and fight against juvenile delinquency and the promotion of alternatives to detention.

For this, the project was initially implemented in two pilot sites, namely La Manouba, in Greater Tunis and Gabes, a region in Central East Tunisia. ATI collaborated on this project with the Communication for Social Change Consortium (CFSC). 

The implementation process has been divided into several sub-processes:

• Establishment of the baseline situation and final evaluation. A research team composed of Pierre-Noël Denieuil, Houda Laroussi, Abdelkhalek Bchir and Synda Koundi conducted a series of interviews and group discussions with children, families and institutional actors to establish their knowledge, attitudes, practices and social norms in relation to juvenile delinquency and alternatives to detention. At the end of the project, the same team measured changes in these parameters in both pilot regions.

• Mobilization and capacity building of the partners: institutional and civil society partners of the project, in particular the Centers of Defense and Social Integration (CDIS), the Children's Complexes, the delegates for the protection of children, judges and police officers from the governorates of Gabes and Manouba received training in communication for development. This process has also helped consolidating regional action plans. 

• Mobilization and capacity building of children: adolescents, especially endangered adolescents and teenagers in conflict with the law of CDIS and Children's Complexes and their parents have conducted several dialogue sessions separately and together. Then they developed their own communication strategies, with their arguments and the activities they would help to achieve. For this, they were trained in participatory video and theater.

• The local communication campaigns: The campaigns were carried out by the youths with the support of the institutions under the slogan "Hold my hand" and it consisted of dialogues following the show of a play, movies and rap video in CDIS, Children's Complexes, schools, youth houses, and houses of culture. The children also engaged with police officers and judges. 

The main outputs of the project are:

• A baseline study as part of the project to implement the communication strategy on juvenile justice.
• An evaluation study of the implementation of the communication strategy on juvenile justice.
• Two participatory videos, a play and a rap clip made by the youths.
• • CDIS Manouba, Tiens ma main (code: 1823)
  • CDIS Manouba, Vidéo clip (code: 258)
  • CDIS Gabès, Demain sera mieux (code: 824)
• Several articles and stories of human interest
• A draft of the guide of good practices in the prevention of juvenile delinquency and promotion of alternative measures to detention.
• Video documentation of the Juvenile Justice project.

ATI collaborators who have participated in the project : 

• Pierre-Noël Denieuil, Research director, ATI
• Houda Laroussi, researcher, ATI
• Abdelkhalek Bchir, researcher, ATI
• Synda Koundi, researcher, ATI
• Abdelhamid Ghribi, consultant, coordinator Gabès, ATI
• Kaouther Maaroufi, consultant, coordinator Manouba, ATI
• Dhekra El Askri, consultant, coordinator Manouba, ATI
• Anissa Chedly, consultant, info-graphist expert, ATI / i-Grafik
• Saloua Ayari, consultant, Back stopping

CFSC collaborators who have participated in the project :

• Denise Gray-Felder, chief of projet, CFSC
• Ngbita Pendje-Wallache, media consultant, CFSC
• Korbin Felder, juvenile justice consultant, CFSC