SUV Urban security and violence management

The aim is to provide training on:

• promoting coexistence and combating discrimination; promoting legality and inclusion;
• protecting the territory and environmental safety:
• urban health and community well-being;
• counteracting gender-based violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation;
• counteracting bullying and cyberbullying;
• prevention, analysis and management of juvenile delinquency with a focus on the role of schools;
• offenders, victims and restorative justice;
• health safety;
• emergencies and collective alarms.

Participants will acquire:

• knowledge of urban and community psychology and social sciences;
• the ability to design, implement and evaluate urban safety and hardship prevention measures;
• skills to develop educational programmes promoting legality, citizenship and social respect;
• the ability to manage relations between institutions, citizens, schools and other actors;
• communication and group management skills for environmental and socio-health emergencies;
• the ability to recognise the need for safety and vulnerable groups.

Attendance:

210 hours on weekends for a total of 18 weekends: Friday afternoons and all day Saturdays, from November 2025 to September 2026; 90 hours of independent study on the Moodle platform; attendance is mandatory for 70% of lessons; the training programme is completed with a Project Work assignment.

The Master’s programme is aimed at professionals and operators who wish to acquire and deepen specific skills in the area of urban security and combating violence such as:

• graduates in psychology, sociology, politics, law, education and health;
• administrators of public bodies, such as mayors and municipal officials, as well as administrators and operators of private bodies;
• heads of municipal urban security services;
• local police personnel and police officers;
• social workers;
• educators, teachers and school staff.

The Master’s programme trains the following professionals:

• urban security managers in the public and private sectors;
• experts in conflict reduction and violence prevention strategies in organisations, communities and educational contexts;
• experts in urban emergency and crisis management, including in the health and socio-educational fields;
• experts in promoting a culture of legality and active citizenship, in line with national school policies;
• experts in violence prevention in urban areas, with specific expertise in youth distress and gender-based violence;
• experts in psycho-social design capable of designing safe and inclusive environments;
• facilitators of participatory processes and social cohesion in the community and in schools.

The programme consists of 16 courses + 1 additional module:

1. urban psychology and violence: psychosocial factors influencing urban dynamics, feelings of insecurity, processes of exclusion and violence;
2. prejudice, conflict and urban peacep: strategies for preventing intergroup violence, promoting coexistence and managing conflict through the development of relational and emotional skills;
3. elements of leadership and decision-making processes in organisational and political contexts: skills for guiding participatory and inclusive decision-making processes in complex and conflictual situations;
4. gender and violence: gender dynamics that instigate violence (victim and perpetrator), protection of victims (support networks) and building education on responsibility and care for others;
5. risk and communication strategies: risk communication and management of collective perceptions in urban, environmental, community and organisational contexts;
6. anthropology of urban diversity: fear and danger in our view of others: cultural processes that fuel stereotypes, exclusion and marginalisation, with a focus on us-them identity processes;
7. governance and coexistence in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods: analysis of urban segregation and structural violence to promote social cohesion and equal opportunities in multicultural contexts;
8. safety, mental health, social distress: prevention of marginalisation and promotion of psychosocial well-being, with a focus on new forms of distress (e.g. juvenile);
9. urban contexts and civil protection: tools and protocols for intervention in urban emergencies, with a community-based and participatory approach;
10. environmental safety: environmental education, climate change, disasters, protection of the city and its citizens;
11. justice, criminology and victimology: elements of criminology, with a focus on the victim, peer victimisation dynamics and the restorative function of justice;
12. criminal law and the culture of legality: predatory crime, juvenile crime and strategies for promoting legality;
13. law, social change and organised crime: the evolution of criminal networks (macro and micro) and the role of law enforcement;
14. health security: prevention of health risks (pandemics, violence against healthcare workers, etc.) and emergency management with an integrated territorial approach;
15. terrorism, security and defence: terror as a social strategy, the terrorist threat and its psychosocial effects on the population and young people (e.g. emulation);
16. crisis management: skills for integrated crisis management in urban, educational, environmental and socio-health contexts.

Additional module specifically for nursery and primary school teachers in the Veneto Region who have been awarded scholarships pursuant to Article 31 of Regional Law No. 33 of 27 December 2024.

Interpersonal respect and acceptance of others: considering that in an urban context, schools are highly social environments, rich in both horizontal (between children) and vertical (between adults and children) relationships, in which students experience a wide range of emotions and learn behaviours that are hopefully socially appropriate, the module offers teachers in nursery and primary schools, in their role as educators, tools to promote, among minors, paths aimed at building identity, developing socio-emotional skills and creating positive relationships with others with a view to accepting differences and respecting others.

• Municipality of Padua
• ASSIV – Italian Association for Surveillance and Security Services
• AIPSA – Italian Association Business Security Professionals
• CIRSIM – Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerca per gli Studi Interculturali e sulle Migrazioni (University of Padua)
• LIBERA – Associations, Names and Numbers against Mafia
• Laboratorio ANS di Ricerca multidisciplinare sulla qualità sociale, benessere, sviluppo umano
• Casa della Memoria (House of Memory) – Brescia
• Fondazione Banca Popolare Etica – Padua
• FIABA – Association for diversity, inclusion, and accessibility for a world without barriers

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The general ranking of merit for the academic year 2025/26 will be published on the Italian page of this Master according to the timing provided in the Call.