The project “systemic UPscaling of Peace Education pRactices – UPPER”, aimed at bringing the values of peace, intercultural dialogue and civic participation to the core of educational policies and school practices with the objective of producing significant improvements in learning life skills for youngsters living in Europe.

The project proposed an analytical review of good practices on peace education worldwide, suggesting a comparative approach for public policies and good practices at school level The main objectives of UPPER were:

• the development, the analysis and the evaluation of scaling up the potential of identified “good practices”;
• the organization of data and narratives based on the good practices selected;
• the piloting and evaluation of different sets of combined good practice elements in twenty schools;
• the proposal of self-assessment and benchmarking tools freely accessible to all interested schools;
• the mobilization of education stakeholders and the digital media world in a converging effort to innovate education towards a “dialogue society for peace”;
• the promotion of synergies with similar initiatives.

The main achievement of this project was the setting up of a Peace Garden in a local school. By creating this peace garden, the children worked together for a common goal, achieving a beautiful outcome. They had the chance to set aside differences and collaborate in making this beautiful garden a reality.