GE PLAY Georgia team in close collaboration with the working group organized a meeting with the representatives of local administration, school principals, school resource officers and NGOs in each of the regions visited by the exchange group.
The largest-scale of such meetings/seminars took place in Tbilisi on June 23, 2015. GE PLAY program teamed up with GE CALLS to put together what can be called a multi-sectorial Seminar on the Role of Organized Sports and Extra-Curricular Activities in Juvenile Delinquency Prevention .
Ann Martin, Executive Director of PH International worldwide and Lia Gigauri, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Georgia opened the seminar. In their speech they pointed out the importance of sharing experiences and new information and adapting those to local context. They also thanked the U.S. Department of State for funding such an innovative program and expressed gratitude to American delegation for their input and willingness to share. 55 persons representing local administrations, schools, police, SRO Department and NGO sector, attended the seminar. The seminar consisted of four thematic parts:
1. Presentation on the work of Albany Police (presented by Mike Basile & Mike Tremblay of Albany PD), during which the guests talked about Albany Police Department goals and objectives, prevention work, Community Engagement (CE) Unit, and CE unit collaboration with Police in Athletics League (PAL), businesses, local government, schools, civil society, church and etc.
2. During the presentation on the work of School Resource Officers, Kevin Grealis of S. Burlington PD in Vermont talked about an SRO as the key staff of Community Engagement Unit; main roles and responsibilities of a School Resource Officer and his ordinary work day at school; lines of communication and types of reports an SRO submits to superiors; Professional development courses for SROs / who does it, how frequently, who pays for it, etc.; Main challenges of SRO work and his/her collaboration with school administration, students, parents and community.
3. While introducing the audience to the work of Police in Athletics League, Lenny Ricchiuti of Albany PAL & Mark Fitzpatrick of Buffalo PAL talked about the goals of PAL in each location; When and why this organization was created; National network of PALs in the U.S.; PAL Structure and staffing (staff qualification, exposure to training); System of referrals of youth to PAL: what are the criteria based on which the youth are identified and what are the institutions (social service, school, the police) that refer them to PAL; Description of services usually provided by PAL; Fundraising for PAL; How the needs assessment is done for PAL beneficiaries: how (based on what kind of information) does a new service come to life; PAL work evaluation (who, how often, what are the criteria, how the data are collected); and Collaboration with businesses, local community and individuals.
4. When talking about the extra-curricular and athletic activities implemented at her school Amy Molina of U-32 Jr/Sr. High School in Vermont focused on general types of extra curricula activities provided at schools in the U.S; Needs assessment conducted to determine what sorts of extra-curricular activities should a school provide; Who creates the standard of extra curricula activities for schools; Staffing; What is the percentage of overall school students enrolled in the extra curricula activities; Challenges; and Partnerships outside the schools.
All the presenters brought real life examples from their own experience; shared success stories and lessons learned and showed visual materials (pictures and videos). Each session was followed by a Q&A session. The audience was very receptive and interested and asked a lot of questions. Similar, but smaller-scale meetings/seminars were conducted during the regional site visits in Kutaisi , Zugdidi and Batumi on June 24, June 26 and June 27.
Georgia | 
