4.5 Mission to Serbia and bullying at school to drug and alcohol abuse. In line with the Mission’s support to local initiatives that promote police-public partnerships through the MSC mechanism, the following activities were implemented: • From April to June, the Mission, together with the Leskovac MSC and the CSO Association of Professionals in Education and Learning (APEL), organized a series of nine workshops on preventing gender-based violence. Students from two secondary schools were taught about this negative phenomenon and the existing mechanisms for the protection of vulnerable victims. They also were given an opportunity to learn of the dangers of unrestrained gender-based violence turning into domestic violence. The project ended on 7 June with a final workshop on the prevention of gender-based violence; • From 29 to 31 October, the Mission, together with the MSC of the town of Pirot, organized a two-day planning session to identify strategic priorities as part of the finalization of its Safety Strategy. Twenty-two members of the Council, including representatives of the police, the local self-government, the prosecution, the centre for social welfare, health institutions, schools’ administration, and civil society, jointly identified safety issues and drafted the Strategy, which aims to improve the security of citizens. While identifying the priorities for action and strategy development, the participants used the findings of a survey on local safety in Pirot, conducted in line with the Mission’s recommendations earlier in 2018; • From May to August, the Mission, together with the MSC of the Municipality of Zvezdara, engaged the CSO, Centre for Reintegration and Activism Belgrade, to research opinions of youth about intolerance and hate crime, and inquire which social groups are mostly at risk of becoming targets. The research involved some 300 students from secondary schools in Zvezdara. Its results contributed to the development of an action plan aiming at combating prejudice among young people as a main driver of hate crime. The action plan foresees workshops as a tool to raise awareness on the harmfulness of bias; • From 28 to 29 November, the Mission supported the holding of a workshop for representatives of ten MSCs from across Serbia. In total, 20 municipal officials and police officers from Čačak, Niš, Novi Pazar, Pirot, Požarevac, Raška, Vrbas, Zemun and Zvezdara were given an opportunity to learn to engage with their respective local communities through effectively formulating and communicating their plans and messages. The ability to communicate services in a transparent manner, to effectively communicate with 90 community groups, media, citizens, and regional and national authorities, or to draft press releases, are essential skills in encouraging citizen participation, promoting local safety and building public trust in institutions, including at the local level. From 3 to 5 December, to assist Serbia’s authorities in improving security around schools and preventing drug abuse among schoolchildren, the Mission, together with the UNODC Office in Belgrade and the MoI’s Drug Addiction Prevention and Narcotics Suppression Service of the Criminalistics Investigation Directorate, organized training for 25 police officers from 15 cities from across the country on the correct application of police powers in a school environment, risk factors for young people becoming dependent on drugs, and prevention techniques against drug abuse among youth. The Mission’s efforts complemented the Serbian authorities’ efforts in improving security around schools and preventing drug abuse among schoolchildren. From 3 to 7 December, the Mission organized a workshop for MoI representatives responsible for community policing. The workshop served to develop educational materials for future in-service community policing training for police officers. In total, 17 police officers, most of whom will act as future community policing trainers, participated in the workshop. On 17 December, the Mission assisted in the organization of the “Sub-Regional Policy Makers Meeting on Holistic Approaches to the Prevention of Youth Crime and Violence – Promising Practices from Albania, Montenegro and Serbia”, organized jointly by the TNTD and UNODC. The meeting gathered 30 representatives of the Ministries of Health, Education, Interior, and Youth and Sports from Albania, Montenegro and Serbia, who shared their experiences and future plans to prevent crime and violence among youth. Half of the participants were women. The workshop also enabled the exchange of lessons learned among policy-makers on investments in crime prevention through social development, programmes on life skills development, education and sport initiatives, and parent skills training. Gender-based and Domestic Violence From April to November, the Mission implemented a project on “Promoting prevention, gender equality and combatting of gender-based violence in local communities of Southwest Serbia (phase II)”. The Mission and its implementing partner, CSO Impuls from Tutin, implemented this project to strengthen the inclusiveness of civil society in discussing security and safety at the local level. The initiative promoted gender equality and women’s rights at the local level, including among migrant women, thus promoting the objectives of the