The innovation underpinning “Patyčių dėžutė” and REAGUOK.LT is that it provides digital solution and cultural change at Lithuanian schools. It allows students, parents and teachers to safely and anonymously report acts of bullying using easy to use website and a mobile app, as well as provides a management system for schools, which can be downloaded and installed free of charge. Moreover, e-learning platform empowers teachers to get more in-depth knowledge around the issue of bullying and does not require commitment to a time or place and is also free of charge.
Previous solutions have focused mainly on increasing access to bullying prevention programs and these efforts have been not always successful due to insufficient funds, consistency or intensity.

“Patyčių dėžutė“ together with REAGUOK.LT e-learning course created a more convenient way to report bullying cases and increase the likelihood of receiving help, especially for those students, who are marginalized and vulnerable.

After successful completion of both projects pilot, Ministry of Education, Science and Sport is expanding the project and inviting all motivated Lithuanian schools to join the initiative. Ministry aims to have half of schools participating in the program by the end of the year, and encourages all the education communities to attend related presentations, group discussions and Q&A sessions.

Internally, the team is currently working with local IT company, upgrading manual guide for users, planning video and social media campaign. To date, more than 100 Lithuanian schools have joined the “Patyčių dėžutė” initiative and more than 400 teachers joined e-learning platform.

Ministry of Education, Science and Sport – securing implementation process and developing a plan to identify the priorities and responsible people to continue the initiatives.

NGO “Child Line” – research and methodological support.

Schools administrators, teachers, school psychologists, parents and other members of the community – reflecting on the quality of the projects in order to identify school’s needs.

And most importantly, students – key players behind both projects.

The development of both projects involved extensive consultations with more than 15 stakeholders, including public and private sector organizations, NGOs, teachers, pupils and local authorities. They were asked to give the feedback on the content and the form of the online platform and were offered to collaborate and bring new ideas.

To measure impact more systematically public consultations were carried out, including 5 focus groups with teachers, 15 interviews with anti-bullying experts, 2 student surveys.

During the pilot study more than 1000 students tested “Patyčių dėžutė” platform for 3 months and schools received 89 bullying reports.
To date, more than 100 Lithuanian schools have joined the “Patyčių dėžutė” initiative and more than 400 teachers joined e-learning platform.
The online platform “Patyčių dėžutė“ as well as training “REAGUOK.LT” were evaluated both by experts and teachers and students. They were asked to give the feedback on the content and the form – groups evaluated the platforms very well, saying they were useful and easy to navigate. Many of the conclusions and recommendations of the education communities have been incorporated into the both projects and it is still very important to consider each of their needs when gathering support for the projects.

First of all, the main challenge was to meet the expectations of all groups and decide on the scope what is both possible to achieve and met the needs of all stakeholders. It was quite challenging to exhibit the “big picture” of the projects and to prove positive outcomes, knowing that everything needs to be done throughout one year. Plans and visions of most of the groups were different and sometimes even impossible to achieve during the project implementation period.

Secondly, some stakeholders have been quite skeptical of “Patyčių dėžutė“ at first, but several discussions and successful three-month pilot study, when as many as 90 reports of bullying and other misconduct were received, made it more convincing.
Thirdly, one of the key challenges was finding a sustainable funding source for the project, as some of the key stakeholders have met the initiative with resistance.

1. Leadership and guidance from senior levels, including support from the highest levels of office in the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and the goodwill of experts across Lithuania.

2. Personal values and motivation, because we were always committed to finishing both of the projects and to give students and teachers a chance to increase the effectiveness of interventions taken to stop future cases of bullying. All the tasks to reach every milestone were documented, including the deadline and the person in charge for every single task. The milestones with the deadlines were published on the public project website, and the tasks with all the information were documented and controlled using work management tool. Moreover, we were able to find various partnerships with parties that did not work according to traditional framework, but were very significant to our projects.

The low cost and relatively simple technology of “Patyčių dėžutė” can be implemented by schools of any size. It can be also used within different youth gathering organisations, promoting young people's participation in reducing bullying. This tool can be completely replicable in similar institutions, such as universities, professional schools, public or private sector bodies. Despite this, candidate organisation needs to have specially designated people responsible for solving bullying or mobbing cases, making sure, that all responses to reports, regardless of their nature, are responsible and quick.

E-learning platform "REAGUOK.LT" can be used across different sectors for various types of projects or organisations, for example, youth workers, pre-school teachers, social pedagogues or NGO professionals.

In the longer term, all the organizations having issues and dealing with bullying can benefit from those initiatives and should consider having them without doubting.

1. Public sector is often perceived as resisting change. Changing culture and behaviours in the public sector takes time and it might be a very long process. It is crucial to work trying to change this attitude by showing alternative approaches within the public sector.
2. Planning is the most important thing – detailed, suitable for all stakeholders, team-involved, and opportunity to change the plan or to reflect the possible changes. It is important to keep attention on project deadlines, especially when creating online solutions, such as virtual learning course and depending on other players, such as cameraman, animator or cheap IT company.
3. It is highly important to keep the constant communication with different stakeholders. This allows to create a useful community of institutions interested in implementation of similar initiatives in the future.
4. With the right help and support change can be possible in any sector. It is important to establish a shared vision about a problem within the community, its impact, and how to stop it, also identifying right people to target and raise awareness.