Interested in changing the reality of students through pedagogical projects, Aurilene Marcelo da Silva is one the successful cases in educational practices in Public School in Brazil. She developed the project We can listen to you, which was formulated together with an intersectoral team. Aurilene is graduated in Pedagogy and Literature and specialized in Language and Literature at the Universidade Estadual Vale do Acaraú (UVA), was effective teacher in the Municipality of Sobral, in the interior of Ceará, also acting as pedagogical coordinator and school director.

Within the school context, violence is still present, whether physical, verbal or self-inflicted. The Sobral Netinha Castelo municipal public school is part of this context in which violence and criminality were present. When taking over the position of school director, Aurilene noticed marks of self-provoked violence in a portion of the students and noted the need to implement an intersectoral project to address the issue of school violence, in particular self-provoked.

In this scenario, the project We can listen to you appears, which seeks to link the sectors of education, health and social assistance. Thus, the first step was the contact with the Family Health Center in the school district to assist in the development of preventive and awareness actions. For this, the center directed two professionals, a psychologist and a social worker, from the teams of Multiprofessional Residence in Mental Health and Multiprofessional Residence in Family Health, respectively. They monitored the classrooms and set conversation circles to address the reasons for thoughts suicide and self-harm. Within these conversations, the students themselves pointed out some aspects responsible for such thoughts: bullying, violence and prejudice, in addition to psychosocial issues.

To discuss these issues, it was necessary to complement the school curriculum so that some fundamental themes for students were addressed, such as peace, respect, resilience and collaboration. These guidelines were included in the Geography, History and, mainly, Arts and Religious Education. Every change was designed so that students were in contact with the themes at least once a week.

The students' engagement was so great that they created a school newspaper. And the project was the first topic addressed in the paper, highlighting the impacts on the school environment, showing that the school was becoming a legitimate and safe space, both physically and psychologically for students.

Complementing the school curriculum was indispensable, but for its effectiveness it was necessary to act by the three main agents of the school: students, teachers and family. The focus of the project was to listen to students and, from listening, to deal with the issues exposed. Thus, two central actions were carried out: individualized service and conversation group.

The first action consisted of providing individualized assistance to students who self-harmed and also to those who were more aggressive, listening to their questions and guiding them with professional help prepared to deal with the situations presented. In parallel to the consultations, a therapeutic conversation group was created, where students who stopped self-harm could share how it was possible to work through their adversities, creating a “wave of good” and positively influencing other students. This action also helped psychologists to act, understanding the feelings and emotions of young people, in addition to reducing violence, both among them and self-harmed, even though the school is located in a notoriously violent area.

In addition to working with students, it was also necessary to involve teachers and families. The importance of teachers' participation in the project is due to the need to address extracurricular topics within their classes and the willingness to listen to students outside the classroom, making themselves available to talk to students during breaks and other free moments, being identified with specific t-shirt. In this sense, the integration of the theme between the disciplines was essential, highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of the project. However, not every teacher was interested in participating in the actions, whether due to lack of time, motivation or interest in the subject, reinforcing the importance of voluntary participation, avoiding the regression of the project. In order to make them able to serve students, the school held a Permanent Education with the teachers along with the care and protection network for adolescents.

The family is a fundamental aspect for education, values, emotions and feelings for children and young people. However, due to other factors, this process can find flaws, causing them to exhibit aggressive and self-damaging behaviors. To bring families closer to school, the board held a meeting with parents and guardians to present students' perspectives on their feelings and how they express them. The result was the difference between the students' and families' views on the feelings of young people, often the families had a false feeling of knowing their children's feelings. The meetings promoted some positive changes in behavior and relations. However, the reality is different from one family to another and depending on each problem, it was necessary to refer some cases to specific entities, such as the Guardianship Council, Psychosocial Care Center, Specialized Reference Center for Social Assistance, among others, highlighting the importance of intersectoral work.

The project did not focus on the results seen in numbers, but on the psychological improvement effects of students through emotional development and their feelings. Even so, in the course of the actions, the principal could perceive that the number of students who mutilated themselves had reduced to zero and the fights that happened inside the school ceased to exist. In addition to starting an innovative project, Aurilene had the support of the state government, which was already stipulating intersectoral goals to reduce violence, through the the State project called "Ceará Pacífico", which focuses on reducing violence in the state area. The convergence of the government's thoughts with the director and the intersectoral assistance of health and social assistance favored the realization of the project.

Today, Aurilene works on the Educar para Valer program in partnership with the Lemann Foundation and is writing a book about her project in order to expand the idea to other schools so that all students feel that the school is a legitimate and safe space for them.