Beyond #MeToo, Youthworkers, Young People and the wider community making a positive change around GBV Erasmus Project

Project Title

Beyond #MeToo, Youthworkers, Young People and the wider community making a positive change around GBV

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Gender equality / equal opportunities

Project Summary

Beyond #MeToo, Youth workers, Young People and the Wider Community making a positive change around GBV.

This is a unique opportunity to bring together 2 communities to make a comprehensive and lasting change in attitudes, behaviours and relationships surrounding GBV Prevention work. We are looking at opening a dialogue and exploring GBV on a scale that both Reykjavik and the North East of Glasgow have never encountered before. This project will be the catalyst for a culture change within both communities; with community partnerships, public consciousness on the issue and political willingness all in place to ensure that this will be successful and sustainable.

This work is based on the learning obtained during a previous Erasmus+ KA2 project, where we made a toolkit for youth workers which supported them when discussing gender-based violence prevention with young people. Throughout that process, we found that youth workers were calling for a lot more support and knowledge in dealing with GBV in their setting. We began our partnership work at the start of the #metoo movement which resulted in a lot of community members finding this subject extremely topical and relevant and many were just realizing the scope of GBV issues in the community. Following that we decided it was important to make this follow up project to provide the additional support youth workers were calling for and to include more partners so to reach a wider community.

Our objectives in the projects are:
-To increase the confidence of youth workers working in Glasgow and Reykjavik to enable them to implement prevention projects around Gender Based Violence.
– For young people to have an increased awareness of GBV in their community and be better equipped to participate in positive change.
-To actively deliver and robustly evaluate primary prevention activities in 2 communities.
-For there to be a greater working relationship between key stakeholders in the community when talking about GBV.
-To consolidate and share the learning through a curriculum so that youth workers out with the project can learn from the process.

The outputs and events we will create/host will be as follows:
-A curriculum for youth workers
-Seminars to upskill youth workers and other staff working with young people
-A toolkit which looks at the effects GBV has in sports clubs and gives support to coaches wanting change
-A resource pack documenting how peer education has been used to challenge GBV in the community
-A resource pack containing details on the process both communities have taken to engage the wider community
-An academic paper capturing and reflecting on the work being delivered
-A professionally made documentary which will follow the journies of Reykjavik and the North East of Glasgow

We estimate that no less than 50 people will be directly participating in the project. Each will bring in their expertise, from the youth who will give us guidance and insight into their realities, to youth workers, teachers, managers and experts in the field of GBV. In terms of full delivery, we expect that at least 2000 young people will come into contact with the activities/events planned; with at least 3000 adults also being involved.

The impact of this project will be vast and long-lasting; with youth workers and sports, coaches involved showing increased confidence in delivering GBV issues in youth work. This will enable them to implement prevention projects around Gender Based Violence. Youth workers and coaches not directly involved will also have access to the materials made that will increase confidence in the issue. Although we are working in 2 communities in ‘Northern Europe’, we want this project to be an inspiration and motivation to partners across the EU and beyond.

The young people involved will have an increased awareness of GBV in their community and feel better equipped to participate in positive change. They will be able to say they were part of a movement of change and feel that youth workers needed their help, whilst also becoming more responsible and healthy citizens.

On a national level, this project will have a profound impact in Iceland and Scotland. It will provide further evidence of the youth work setting as being suitable for GBV Prevention work. The project will allow us the chance to share their results with the national government and with the evidence the research part of the project gives us to ask them for further support in issue-based prevention work.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 176854,97 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ofbeldisforvarnaskólinn & Country: IS

Project Partners

• HASKOLI ISLANDS
• Royston Youth Action
• City of Reykjavik Skóla og fristundasvið
• St Paul’s Youth Forum