The aim of Alexander Project project, that is a collaboration of five organisations dealing with Human rights, LGBT+ issues (also in relation to migrants and refugees), youth and arts is to develop new strategies in opening up discussion on sexual diversity. These new strategies are based on the so-called ‘soft skill’ principle: the development of soft skills, mainly use of theatre, visual arts and storytelling. Theatre and creative methods will be used as a means for conveying the messages. All partners bring in their own expertise, varying in media and arts (Stichting art.1), advocacy/networking (Accept LGBT Cyprus), training (The Helsinki Committee FYROM, Drustvo Kulturno), education (Omilos Thessalonikis). The common denominator is youth work and our embedment in local and national youth work structures. This project will result in transnational, tangible outcomes which will be promoted through various European channels and gay-straight alliance collaborations. This project uses soft skills, such as storytelling, visual arts and theatre to increase awareness on sexual diversity in specific, but also on the general concept of diversity, including cultural and gender diversity. Most importantly, using soft skills increases this project's reach to the countries facing higher homophobic tendencies. However, also countries with a broader and more deep-rooted acceptance towards LGBT+ are benefited from this project, since it uses creative tools like storytelling, visual arts and theatre for conveying its core. Following on the successful completion of Young Queer Europe in 2015, it has been realised that one of the challenges is the dissemination of the toolkit and outcomes in countries where diversity is less accepted socially, as the structures and societal openness are not as wide as in countries like The Netherlands. Therefore, building on this experience, establishing the correct partners, and now being familiar with the local mentalities, this project now addresses the issue of diversity and more specifically, sexual diversity, under a different context. This project is innovative in many different ways as it involves organisations with huge experience in similar projects, which will be transferring knowledge to organisations with local knowledge but less experience in this type of projects and also focuses on a bottom-up approach, changing the mentality of societies about (sexual) diversity not institutionally, but through working groups, youth workers and art based on soft-skills. The primary target group of this project is the youth workers/educators/social workers and arts workers who benefit from using the tool and the methodology developed within the framework of this project. It will reach at least 350 youth workers/educators/social workers and arts workers in every participating country in the course of two years. These professionals we provide with tools and knowledge to develop their work with youth (the secondary target group) on working with on LGBT+ and diversity issues. This project also reaches at least 600 young people, who will be able to contribute to a more equal society. After its completion, the project will create a change of mind towards LGBT+ issues of at least 25.000 young people in the EU (plus 150.000 through oour online channels). The impact of this project is strong in local, national and European level. Locally, it raises the visibility of local arts engagement and soft skill learning models of best practice, provides access in high quality mobility experiences for LGBT+ youth and raises awareness of best practice with local decision makers and youth, social and cultural sector providers. Nationally, it delivers innovative programs to develop creative tools used for sensitizing on LGBT+ and (sexual) diversity issues. In the European context, it will support the case for creative cultural sector actions to social issues and the development of similar programs. Further impact will be to demonstrate how continued European cooperation between the partners who experience similar social challenges in the development of its population can provide real tangible impacts, tools and best practice models that have transferable applications.
The aim of Alexander Project project –a collaboration of five organisations dealing with human rights, LGBTIQ+ issues (including migrants and refugees), youth and arts, is to develop new strategies and tools with which to open up the discussion on sexual diversity and inclusion. These new strategies are based on so-called ‘soft skill’ principles: the use of theatre, visual arts and storytelling as means with which to convey and transmit messages. All partners are to bring their respective expertise, varying from media and arts (Stichting art.1), advocacy/networking (Accept LGBT Cyprus), training (The Helsinki Committee FYROM, Drustvo Kulturno) and education (Omilos Thessalonikis) – to mention a few. The common denominator throughout the project is youth work, with all partners seeking to embed the project’s intellectual outputs in local, national and European youth work networks. Though the project uses soft skill methodologies such as storytelling, visual arts and theatre to specifically increase sexual diversity awareness, it also works within a broader concept of diversity which includes cultural and gender diversity. Most importantly, the use of scalable and accessible soft-skill methodologies increases the project's transferability and reach to countries and regions in which the LGBTIQ+ community faces higher rejection and danger given deeply entrenched homophobic tendencies. Notwithstanding, however, the project also benefits countries with higher tolerance rates such as The Netherlands, as it puts forth the exchange of best practices with organisations in far more adverse contexts, making room for innovative techniques to be used in other situations and projects. Following the successful completion of Young Queer Europe in 2015, we noted that one of the hardest challenges to overcome was the actual dissemination of intellectual outcomes, such as manuals and toolkits, in countries where diversity is less socially accepted. Building on this experience, the Alexander Project / Perform2Reform sought to establish a partnership which, through each local partners’ proven experience, became deeply familiarised with local collective mentality and possible mitigation strategies to difficulties encountered along the way. This project is innovative in many ways, but most notably by bringing together organisations with high experience in different areas within youth work, also focusing on a bottom-up artivists approach, changing the mentality of societies on (sexual) diversity not institutionally, but through working with groups, youth workers and soft-skill development such as storytelling and theater. The primary target group of this project is youth workers/coaches/ educators/social workers and arts workers who benefit from using the tools and methodologies developed within the framework of this project. It is expected to reach at least 350 youth workers/educators/social workers and arts workers in every participating country over the course of two years. These professionals will be provided with tools and knowledge to further develop their work with youth (secondary target group) on working with on LGBT+ and diversity issues. This project is also expected to reach at least 7500 young people, who will be able to contribute to a more equal society after being exposed to the methodologies within the project. After its completion, the project is expected to contribute to a change of mind towards LGBTIQ+ issues for at least 25.000 young people in the EU (plus 150.000 through our online channels). The impact of this project seeks to be strong on a local, national and European level. Locally, it seeks to raise the visibility of artistic engagement and soft skill learning models of best practices, providing access to high quality mobility experiences for LGBTIQ+ youth and raising local decision makers’ awareness of best practices in and youth, social and cultural sector providers. Nationally, it seeks to deliver innovative programs with which to develop creative tools used for sensitising on LGBTIQ+ and (sexual) diversity issues. On a European level, it seeks to support the case for creative cultural sector actions to address social issues and the development of similar programs in the future. Additionally, the project seeks to make a case for how continued cooperation between pan-European partners facing radically or mildly different contexts can provide real tangible impacts, tools and best practice models that with transferable, scalable applications with which to build a more inclusive and cohesive region.