During April- May, Ani Vardanyan, an outsourced expert-trainer, Head of the Psychological Forensic Department at the National Bureau of Forensics developed the first draft of the Personal Development Manual for the 11 specialists of CLERP and Abovyan prison's Social-Psychological-Legal Unit to be used in their work with incarcerated youth. The manual covers 2 different aspects: one includes the theory of professional ethics of specialists working with youth prisoners, specifics of individual and group work with juveniles focusing on group work techniques and activities, while the other includes practical activities which promote the development of interpersonal skills of incarcerated youth, including aggression management, self-presentation and self-analytical skills mainly focusing on positive behavior patterns.
Following the manual development, a ToT was designed for Abovyan prison's Social-Psychological-Legal Unit and CLERP staff which consisted of 3 phases: training of the selected trainer candidates; trainee observation of the professional trainers with youth at Abovyan; trainer observation/feedback with trainees working with the youth.
The first phase designed for the trainees was conducted in June 27-29. Eleven staff, 6 from Abovyan penitentiary and 5 from CLERP participated in the ToT. The three day, four half-day activity mainly focused on ethical standards and competencies of specialists working with incarcerated youth, individual and group work specifics with incarcerated youth, including principles and specifics of training content including behavioral skills, understanding risky behavior, building connections, job search skills, gender and minority sensitivity awareness, etc.
The second and third phases were conducted on July 12 and July 16, 17 respectively. During the second phase the expert-trainer held a number of master classes for the virtual audience of incarcerated youth. Considering the small number of incarcerated youth, (only two, one of them incarcerated, the other detailed), it was decided to adjust the initial plan and instead of working directly with the two youth, conduct mock classes with the virtual audience of participants.
The third phase was led by the pre-selected pairs of trained trainees who conducted classes on topics assigned to them from the manual by the expert-trainer and PHI.
Armenia | 
