Gender Unlocked
Start date: Sep 1, 2014,
End date: Aug 31, 2015
PROJECT
FINISHED
Gender Unlocked has been an 10 days youth exchange focused on the topic of Gender and LGBTQI+ issues.
It involved 40 youngsters from 18 to 30 years old coming from 7 different countries, youngsters with different level of familiarity with LGBTQI+ people, different sexual preferences or gender identity.
The main objectives of the project has been to create a safe space for the participants in order to allowed free self expression, to work together and rise awareness on the topic of sexuality and Gender theories, to promote inclusion for LGBTQI+ people through concrete actions also in connection with the local society, to overcome prejudices and stereotypes, to understand how do xenophobia and homophobia grow and, out of this new understanding, to decrease the impact of cultural limitations on creating personal choices connected with love and sexuality, to support the participants to create workshops aimed to reach the goals of the project also in the societies where they live.
The activities we took part in have been focused on: team building, inter-cultural dialogue, sharing sessions, reflection and evaluation, Gender theories, human rights, the preparation and implementation of workshops.
The methodology used was based on experiential learning, collaborative learning, immersion in an outdoor environment, theatre, dance, drawing and media as tools of self expression.
The long term results are the following: the participants made progresses on liberating from the impact of cultural limitations on accepting, understanding and including people who have a different behaviour connected with love, sexuality and sexual expression. They expand their awareness about rights and living conditions of LGBTQI+ people in different European societies.
They feel more confident about their own identity, they took steps in the process of acceptance, or in the one of overcoming internalized homophobia; they have deeper and more precise knowledge about the topic of Gender and sexuality. The organizations involved increased their involvement in projects and activities focused on LGBTQI+ issues and they have concrete tools collected in the manual we realized during the exchange to present the topic of sexuality in a more inclusive way to different target groups.