Culture and Gender

Aims & objectives

The main aim of this project is to contribute to the process of building tolerant integrated society based on respect to the gender equality and cultural diversity with active intercultural cooperation and dialogue, through raising the awareness of a group of youth leaders about the theme of gender identity and cultural diversity and through supporting their development as youth workers and peer educators in this field in their communities. In this way, the training course is focused both on supporting the target group of the project and on making further impact on the local communities involved.

main objectives of the project:
-To explore the interdependence between cultural/national/religious background and gender identification
-To analyze the influence of our habitat/upbringing/education/other external factors on our self-determination
-To show the variety of gender and identity visions in different cultures/nations/religions
-To break prejudices/myths related to the gender and self-identification
-The project aims to attract people’s attention to the differences existing in our society on the score of gender identity, to reflect the diversity and complexity of the present situation in our society, to make them realize the importance of stereotypes breaking and open-mindness.
-To make people aware of the consequences of gender intolerant behavior
-In this way, the project is expected to support the personal development of the participants by making them more tolerant, open minded, respectful and ready to live and work together with people with different world vision from other cultural groups.
-To make the participants more sensitive towards other cultures, particularly when working with mixed groups of young people
-To support participants’ development as youth workers, facilitators and peer educators
-To provide an opportunity for the participants to practice their skills for working with groups of young people
-To support development of participants’ social, communication and team working skills in multicultural environments
-To introduce the participants with the Youth in Action Programme and to encourage them to work on establishing partnerships for the sake of implementing future international projects in the framework of the programme.
-To involve the participants in a process of intercultural learning and to make them more aware of the current events and social processes in other European countries
In the sense of making impact on the local communities involved, this project aims to achieve the following:
-To support the development of young leaders who are ready to act as youth workers and peer educators in the field of cultural diversity
-To support the development of young responsible citizens, aware of their role in the society and actively involved in the social processes
-To involve other young people from all local communities through the non-formal education activities that will be implemented by the project participants and the partner promoters.

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

Youth leaders and youth workers from Germany, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Greece, Cyprus, Sweden, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Finland.
Team of trainers:
Natalia Seriakova-Germany
Dragan Atanasov-Macedonia

Training methods used & main activities

The working methods ranged theoretical imputs; simulations; small group work; presentations; discussions; role games, open space; forum theater, meditation and others.
Exploring the project theme and other subjects related to it the participants were involved in a process that took them from the individual level of understanding themselves and their own identity, to the level of understanding the reasons for forming gender identity. The methods used during this part were a combination of sharing, inputs and various exercises such as "The Story of Abigale", the scale of gender identity, gender role and simulation games, forum theater.

In addition, it was very important that they started exploring the topic by exploring themselves, their own identity and their place in the society. Because of this, there was a number of self-analyzing activities that were included in the program. The implementation of these activities allowed young people not only to understand the gender roles and the diversity in their communities, but also to become aware of their own identity, cultural belonging and place in the society – which is very important for their development of active social citizens, role models, youth workers and peer educators.

Outcomes of the activity

This project was designed in such a way that it included two different phases: the training course itself and follow-up activities that will be implemented after the training. The training course is the basis that will be used for launching activities on local level, which will be designed and implemented by the project participants and the partner promoters. In this way, the project tends to make broader impact on the local communities involved and to be a beginning of more devoted work of the project promoters.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

Full-time trainer
Responsible for the programme ( design and implementation).
Hosting.

I worked on this training for 7 days as a full time trainer.