This is an archived version of http://civic-europe.eu/ideas/gender-equality-task-force/
Gender Equality Task Force | Civic Europe
Human rights, Youth participation and empowerment

Gender Equality Task Force

Creating a safe school community!

Creators

Who is behind this?

Ana Carla Rodrigues Afonso

100% Me Stessa ETS

https://www.centopercentomestessa.it/associazione/

Italy

Who is joining forces?

Istituto Comprensivo Statale Giovanni XXIII Cammarata

https://www.icgiovanni23esimo.edu.it/wp/

Italy


Municipality of Cammarata

https://www.comune.cammarata.ag.it/cammarata/hh/index.php

Italy


Idea

Idea pitch

We aim to combat gender based violence (GBV), a human rights’ violation pervasive in Sicily, and to create a safer school community based on dialogue and respect of gender diversity.
Activities:
Training 15 youth on GBV through human rights education.
Youth prepare/organise an awareness raising campaign+Open Day at school (185 youth).
Dialogue tables with the Municipality+deliver recommendations to combat GBV at school.
Create the Gender Equality Task Force (youth-lead participation space).

Where will your project idea take place?

Cammarata (AG), Sicily

What is the specific societal challenge faced by this region?

The societal challenge we aim to tackle is gender based violence. Regularly in Sicily there are violent episodes in young couples and femminicides, homophobic violence and bullying against students with diverse gender identities and expressions. Schools are the space where these violent situations happen frequently and therefore a perfect place to start working on the subject.

A pervasive feeling of helplessness and lack of power affects youth in Sicily. All together corruption, mafia, lack of hope in the future and poor participation structures/opportunities contribute to innaction and lack of participation.

With our project we want to create spaces and opportunities for education and participation dedicated to youth in Cammarata and to show that it’s possible to make a difference.

Who are you doing it for?

The direct target group are 15 youth (gender balanced group) aged 14 from Giovanni XXIII secondary school. We will engage youth that are interested in the project theme and are motivated to be youth leaders in the community.

Besides we will strive to involve youth with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. Although this might be a difficult objective to fulfil, because these are hidden identities very often not expressed for fear of oppression, our plan is to talk directly with the classes in an open, welcoming and friendly way. This attitude will certainly motivate youth to engage without fear of being judged or oppressed.

The indirect target group is the school community (185 students and teachers) who will be involved in the Open Day foreseen the 25th of November.

How do you plan to get there?

Oct
Recruitment
Oct
Three training sessions with youth, through human rights education, on the topic of gender-based violence (GBV).
Participants meet the Municipality to inform them about the situation of GBV in school and ask the Municipality what have been so far their actions to combat it.
Nov
Based on their experience and learning from the previous training sessions on GBV, participants prepare together with two local artists an awareness raising campaign to combat GBV at school.
25th Nov-Open Day and campaign launching: participants will be actively organising the Open Day involving the school community. The Municipality will be invited.
Main activities: group discussions, workshops and storytelling by people who suffered from GBV.
Nov
Participants prepare Recommendations to combat GBV and promote gender equality in local schools to deliver to the Municipality. In this 2nd dialogue table youth will share their learnings and invite the Municipality to actively mainstream the Recommendations in school.
Participants will be encouraged and sustained to continue their activities on combating GBV by the creation of the Gender Equality Task Force. This is the formalisation of the youth group already started and that our Association would like to sustain in their active participation at school.

What are the expected results?

The 15 students will learn about gender based violence (GBV): they will be more aware, open and motivated to be active in building gender equality and combating GBV in their school and other groups they belong to.

The project’s reference teachers will be more aware and ready to identify and report gender violence in their classes.

The school community in general will gain new knowledge on the subject and this way be safer with fewer GBV episodes.

The Municipality will increase their capacity of dialogue with young people encouraging them to express their voice and opinions on gender related issues as well as in other local matters that concern young people and their families.
The Gender Equality Task Force will be created and start to build their role at school.

How does your idea strengthen active citizenship at a local and community level?

1st - By means of EDUCATION youth participations will strengthen their knowledge of the central project theme. This is the first step to be active.

2nd - After they will actively prepare an awareness raising campaign and an Open Day at school. This step will provide the space to be ACTIVE and see the results of their actions: EMPOWERMENT. This is a mentored phase.

3rd - Meetings with the Municipality to start a dialogue and create the conditions for youth to have a voice and feel empowered. Deliver to the Municipality youth-developed Recommendations on how to combat GBV and build a more gender equal school.

4th - Create the Gender Equality Task Force at school and sustain youth in developing a youth-led participation space that can attract and involve more students.

Why is this idea important to you?

Our team is entirely composed by professionals and volunteers from Cammarata and that have lived here most of their lives.
Ana Afonso, Psychologist, is a trainer from the Youth Department of the Council of Europe with wide experience in youth work and gender.
Fiore Pecoraro, Medicine student, is a volunteer who aims to learn about non-formal education and gender equality. She will co-develop the sessions with Ana.
Daniela Giambrone is co-founder of the association and has a strong and wide local network.
For us this project represents an important occasion to implement our mission on girls empowerment and gender equality from all perspectives, to strengthen local partnerships and to involve young people in our activities in a long term.

€ 11360,-

Total budget

€ 11360,-

Funding requested from Civic Europe

Major expenses

personnel costs 9000 EUR
stationery and artistic material 1400 EUR
communication costs 400 EUR
office expenses 400 EUR
regional travel costs 160 EUR

What do you need from the Civic Europe community?

We are open to all sorts of feedback and comments. However, perhaps to have extra ideas on what kind of activities to deliver the Open Day or on how to engage youth in the Gender Equality Task Force in the long run would be great!

Team

anaafonso1980

fiorecrazy.fp

Val

Idea created on April 21, 2021
Last edit on April 26, 2021

Write comment