CHANCE or "C4C" will be a youth-led project that will bring together a cross-sector, strategic partnership of 6 familiar and not so familiar with Erasmus organisations to develop innovative, community-led, educational methods and tools to help address the root causes that lead to gender-based violence (GBV) and gender discrimination as they impact on young people. In our modern European societies, GBV continues to be a widespread phenomenon impacting on young peoples' lives regardless of their religion, ethnicity, socio-economic status or level of education. There is also evidence to suggest that youth workers need more capacity to deal with this persistent phenomenon at EU level, putting emphasis on supporting marginalised groups of girls and young women as they tend to be more exposed to GBV. The project results will help deliver the Europe 2020 Strategy and EU gender equality policies. HORIZONTAL: SOCIAL INCLUSION We believe that C2C addresses multiple horizontal and sectoral priorities including but not limited to Social Inclusion. GBV and gender discrimination are a reality for many young women and girls who are excluded and marginalised, limiting their potential to participate equally in life and civic society. This may include areas such as education, employment and progression, social life and health provision. CHANCE aims to address the root causes that lead to these phenomena for young people, helping in this way to the delivery of the social inclusion objectives of the new Youth Strategy and Erasmus+. CHANCE also aims to increase young people's awareness of their rights and responsibilities particularly pertaining to GBV, discrimination, exclusion and abuse. This core theme was developed in line with the Erasmus + Programme, having considered carefully the findings of the EU Youth Report. While the target beneficiary group of CHANCE is wide (increasing potential impact), it also has a specific focus on minority ethnic women, identified as the most vulnerable group in the project's context. C4C puts strong focus on the involvement of young people with fewer opportunities, both as ultimate project beneficiaries and as participants in the development and oversight of the project. This is because we have evidence to believe that young women from minority ethnic groups, refugee and migrant communities as well as low socio-economic backgrounds are more exposed to GBV and gender discrimination. YOUTH: Promoting engaging, connecting and empowering young people As a youth-led project, CHANCE will directly empower young people in the participating countries to get involved in the project through volunteering and social action. The young people will be empowered to deliver project management (e.g. quality control) and project tasks. We will use the values of restorative justice (i.e. power sharing, equality and fairness) to empower them to drive the project. While doing so, C4C will create and pilot an innovative model and related tools for youth workers empowering them to better connect and support their young people in their work in reducing GBV. CHANCE will also make use of a pedagogy of production approach particularly suitable to involve young people in reflecting activities and in oder to empower them to challenge stereotyped attitudes and behaviours regarding gender relationships through the development of critical thinking and other skills. YOUTH: Promoting quality, innovation and recognition of youth work C4C has been developed to deliver Erasmus' strategic partnership objectives of professionalising youth workers and building their competences, as well as setting quality standards. To this end it will develop and pilot (a) "GBV Youth Workers' Competence Framework" and self-assessment e-tool (b) two accredited e-courses (c) a scientific publication. We have evidence to believe that by increasing the capacity of youth workers, we can minimise the gap in youth learning in relation to preventative GBV related practices. The aforementioned 3 innovative education material on restorative justice and media based tools will be translated in all participating languages and be accredited. They will enhance the quality of youth work and piloted in the participating countries. They will also be made available to all EU members states via the project's website and planned dissemination actions. Lastly, the project aims to build relationships among organisations servicing youth in the participating countries and across Europe, while providing key workers of the participating organisations with new skills and knowledge so that they can deliver the project's objectives and transfer them to others. Through its multipliers, C4C will bring together various stakeholders in the youth field from different member states to support the project's collaborative development and exchange of innovative methods, tools and practices, focusing on GBV as this impacts on young people and marginalised groups.
The C4C project had several objectives focusing on promoting gender equality amongst European youth, and addressing GBV violence in both formal and informal educational settings. When we applied, we already had evidence to believe that by increasing the capacity of youth workers, we could minimise the gap in youth learning in relation to preventative GBV related practices. Therefore, C4C aimed to tackle stereotypes, attitudes and behaviours shaping gender inequality leading to discrimination and violence among young people through a bottom-up approach. The ultimate objective was to create and pilot a media-based educational model for youth workers focusing on restorative justice preventative methods that will help reduce stereotyped attitudes within informal and formal educational environments, promoting a safe and inclusive culture that will help reduce the likelihood of GBV amongst young people. C4C's specific objectives were: 1) Combine innovative educational approaches (e.g. media literacy concepts and tools) with restorative justice to create and pilot new and accredited capacity building material for youth workers to prevent GBV 2) Increase the capacity of youth workers, peer educators and other members the community (awareness, knowledge, capacity to develop and transmit own critical thinking/awareness 3) Empower young people to run the project and through a bottom-up approach increase awareness across policy makers of the youth-led model of project delivery.
In our modern European societies, gender-based violence (GBV) continues to be a widespread phenomenon impacting on young peoples' lives regardless of their religion, ethnicity, socio-economic status or level of education. There is evidence to suggest that youth workers need more capacity to deal with this persistent phenomenon at EU level, putting emphasis on supporting marginalised groups of girls and young women as they tend to be more exposed to GBV. The Restorative Justice for All International Institute (RJ4All) applied for the Chance for Change (C4C) project in order to bring together a cross-sector, strategic partnership of 6 familiar and not so familiar with Erasmus organisations to develop innovative, community-led, educational methods and tools to help address the root causes that lead to GBV and gender discrimination as they impact on young people. Preliminary research that we carried out showed that youth workers' knowledge about restorative justice and the use of media education was extremely limited. Therefore, we set off on a journey that would address these gaps and needs, and with the ultimate objective of benefiting European youth who continue to be challenged by gender discrimination and GBV. Through these objectives several Erasmus priorities would be addressed while promoting the European Youth Strategy.