In the past years, gender issues, sexual harassment, inclusion of LGBTQIA+ youth, closing of the gender wage gap etc. have been important topics in the public sphere and the attention to gender approaches became crucial in educational programmes and in youth work. On the other side, the third sector and youth work play a key role in raising awareness among civil society, lobbying towards institutions, therefore it is relevant that they create advanced and innovative tools of education and inclusion on the topic, that they foster practises and processes able to include gender approaches as a systemic and structural aspect, and they apply them starting from the activities they realize and the relationships they develop. Therefore, trainers of volunteering and youth organisations (group leaders, facilitators and trainers of youth exchanges, trainings and seminar mentors, tutors and coordinators of long term volunteering projects, workcamps coordinators and workers in field of youth) are potential powerful multipliers of inclusive processes also from a gender point of view. In order to make this fact effective they need at first to understand the dynamics behind harmful comments, behaviours and incidents, then be endowed with the capacities to address them through non-formal education and conflict transformation methods and to create safer space for youngsters within the framework of the context where the actions are implemented and beyond. “The Gender Effect: Training of Trainers on Gender Education” wished to address this gap, it wanted to increase the quality of youth work aiming at raising the awareness, understanding, skills and competences among trainers of volunteering and youth organisations in identifying gender violence and discrimination in all its forms and reacting to them through non-formal education methodologies. It aimed at boosting the normalization of the inclusion of all genders and sexualities in local and international youth work through non-formal education methodologies and basic actions for gender safer spaces also in projects even where gender is not the main topic. Methodologies and action which can be effectively applied in or easily tailored to the variety of social, political, geographical and cultural contexts, within Europe and beyond. Indeed, partners organization came from different European Countries, from Candidate Countries, Partner Countries from the Western Balkans region, from Eastern Partnership Countries, from South-Mediterranean countries and from the Russian Federation. Moreover, they were a mix of well-established and relatively new organisations within the SCI network that have expressed a need or interest in creating safer spaces around gender and in fighting gender-based discrimination in their projects. The various levels of expertise they brought and the geographical extent guaranteed a relevant growth for all of them thanks to the exchange and best practices sharing. The project therefore addressed the following specific objectives: - Deepen knowledge of the different aspects of gender violence and discrimination; - Learn to identify when microaggressions, sexism etc. are happening in a group activity, with a focus on youth and volunteering projects; - Learn to address the incidents with a diverse range of communication and non-formal education tools; - Spread a basic background of gender studies and gender education; - Identify common best practises through the exchange of experiences and best practices; - Create a training booklet containing concrete methods, tools and suggestion to be spreaded among youth organisations around the world thanks to the several local contacts that the partnership guarantees and the international networks where partners are involved such us Service Civil International (SCI), Coordination Committee of International Voluntary Service (CCIVS), Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations (Alliance); - Promote Erasmus+ and Youthpass; - Strengthen the bond among partners in order to enforce an environment of sustainable and constant exchange for mutual support on tools development and problem solving methods.
In the past years, gender issues, sexual harassment, inclusion of LGBTQIA+ youth, closing of a gender wage gap etc. have been important topics in the public sphere and the attention to gender approaches became crucial in the main educational programmes and in the youth work. On the other side, the third sector and the youth work play a key role in raising awareness among civil society, lobbying towards the institution, therefore it is relevant that they create advanced and innovative tools of education and inclusion on the topic, that they foster practises and processes able to include gender approaches as a systemic and structural aspect, and they apply them starting from the activities they realize and the relationship they develop. Therefore, trainers of volunteering and youth organisations (group leaders, facilitators and trainers of youth exchanges, trainings and seminar mentors, tutors and coordinators of long term volunteering projects, workcamps coordinators and workers in field of youth) are potential powerful multipliers of inclusive processes also from a gender point view. In order, to make this fact effective they need at first to understand the dynamics behind harming comments, behaviours and incidents, then be endowed with the capacities to address them through non-formal education and conflict transformation methods and to create safer space for youngsters within the framework of the context where the actions are implemented and beyond. “The Gender Effect: Training of Trainers on Gender Education” wishes to address this gap, it wants to increase the quality of youth work aiming at raising the awareness, understanding, skills and competences among trainers of volunteering and youth organisations in identifying gender violence and discrimination in all its forms and reacting to them through non-formal education methodologies. It aims at boosting the normalization of the inclusion of all genders and sexualities in local and international youth work through non-formal education methodologies and basic actions for gender safer spaces also in projects even where gender is not the main topic. Methodologies and action which can be effectively applied in or easily tailored to the variety of social, political, geographical and cultural contexts, within Europe and beyond. Indeed, partners organization comes from different European Countries, from Candidate Countries, Partner Countries from Western Balkans region, from Eastern Partnership Countries, from South-Mediterranean countries and from Russian Federation. Moreover, they are a mix of well-established and relatively new organisations within the SCI network that have expressed a need or interest in creating safer spaces around gender and in fighting gender-based discrimination in their projects and the various level of expertise the bring and the geographical extent will guarantee a relevant growth for all of them thanks to the exchange and best practises sharing. The project will therefore address the following specific objectives: - Deepen knowledge of the different aspects of gender violence and discrimination; - Learn to identify when microaggressions, sexism etc. are happening in a group activity, with a focus on youth and volunteering projects; - Learn to address the incidents with a diverse range of communication and non-formal education tools; - Spread a basic background of gender studies and gender education; - Identify common best practises through the exchange of experiences and best practices; - Create a training booklet containing concrete methods, tools and suggestion to be spreaded among youth organisations around the world thanks to the several local contacts that the partnership guarantees and the international networks where partners are involved such us Service Civil International (SCI), Coordination Committee of International Voluntary Service (CCIVS), Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations (Alliance); - Promote Erasmus+ and Youthpass; - Strengthen the bond among partners in order to enforce an environment of sustainable and constant exchange for mutual support on tools development and problem solving methods.