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Warriors Against Gender – Based Violence

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We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.

– Dr. Mary Mcleod Bethune, U.S. civil rights pioneer and activist

Women’s Issues Information Centre together with Centre MARTA (Latvia), Colectivo MosaiQ (Spain) and The Future Now Association (TFN) (Bulgaria) teamed up to create a space for young people to be themselves, receive understanding and support, and face the future with more hope.

The Warriors against GBV Project is created to train and empower youth workers by providing them with innovative methods of working with young people who are victims of gender-based violence.

 

We believe that victims of violence must be constantly supported and assisted, provided with a safe environment, understood, and heard. 

 

Name of the project: Warriors against Gender-based Violence

Duration: 03/01/2022 – 30/10/2023

Problem statement:

Young people are neglected in their need for personal support, understanding and education not only in formal manners but also in questions of self-awareness, self-knowledge, as well as interpersonal relationships and boundaries. They are experiencing violence in their lives.

In the EU, 1 in 3 women and girls over the age of 15 has experienced physical and/or sexual violence. 1 in 2 has experiences sexual harassment, 1 in 5 has experienced stalking, 1 in 20 has been raped. (EIGE, 2015) A quarter of LGBTI+ people have been attacked or threatened with violence (FRA, 2012).

Beyond the numbers, we can see a culture of inequality creating a very different life environment for anyone in a vulnerable position or deemed outside the established gender norms. There is an ever-growing need to support victims, create spaces for them to be safe, heard and understood, as well as create mechanics for improvement, sharing, community and support. We need to support both victims of GBV, and organizations, working to combat it. We need active and dedicated warriors against gender-based violence.

Obvious gaps in the previously discussed knowledge leads to gruesome results of violence, self-hatred, self-harm and worse. There is a need to:

Objectives:

  • Educate both youth workers and young people on gender-based violence, empowering them to be proactive parts of supportive communities, and agents – warriors – for positive change and combating violence.
  • Build and promote – through communication and exchange- a sustainable community, engaged in the topic of gender-based violence, created by individuals and organizations in the EU.
  • Provide young people and youth organizations with a platform: a safe space, in which they are encouraged to share, be heard, and support other people in need of the same treatment.
  • Connect and unite organizations, working in the field; equip them with new tools and support their understanding and identification of gender-based violence in victims and in perpetrators.
  • Expand the impact of existing efforts combating gender-based violence through awareness-raising, good practices exchange and collaboration with various actors in the field.
  • Take part in achieving Sustainable Development Goals #4, #5 and #16 through engagement of youth and youth workers and attention to connectivity, relationship- and community-building, effective engagement, and tools for capacity building.

Activities:

  • Development of the Warrior platform for organizations and individuals. The content of the platform consists of important milestones for the project, including the creation of the quizzes for self-assessment, the establishment of online spaces both for organizations, youth, community-building, safe spaces, as well as project results.
  • Development of a Guide with best practices for youth work in the field of combating GBV, will be led by MARTA.
  • Elaboration of a Methodology for creating and operating safe spaces online and offline, inviting youth workers to explore the subject of safe spaces learn a new methodology and participate in the Warriors platform to support young people from across Europe.

Project results:

  • The self-assessment quizzes
  • The interactive map of services
  • The methodology in creating online and offline safe spaces and the space I the platform for that purpose
  • Space for exchange and community building between organizations in the field of combating gender-based violence
  • The guide on best practices.

The project partnership is highly motivated to contribute to the fight against this type of violence and to give voice and opportunity to victims to make them feel supported, understood, and safe!

 

Project partners: The Future Now Association (TFN) (Bulgaria), Centrs MARTA (Latvia), Asociación Colectivo MosaiQ (Spain).

Coordinator: Moteru Informacijos Centras Asociacija MIC (Lithuania), project managers and researchers: Rugile Butkeviciute rugile@lygus.lt and Dovile Rukaite dovile@lygus.lt. Project technician and youth worker Kristina Kiselyte kristina@lygus.lt.

 

The project is funded by the Erasmus + program (KA220: Strategic Partnerships in Youth)

Erasmus+KA2 „European Design – Europia 2020“ | Mažeikių Kalnėnų progimnazija

 

 

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Dare to Care Baltics

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Project addresses Council of Baltic Sea States priority area “safe & secure region” by focusing on violence prevention among and towards young people in Baltics. Project activities aim to strengthen young peoples resilience and raise awareness regarding healthy relationships and issues of bullying, gender-based violence and human trafficking.

Participating organizations: MARTA Centre, Latvia (Lead Partner); NGO Paikuse Open Youth Center, Estonia (Co-Partner); Women’s Issues Information Center, Lithuania (Co-Partner)

Duration of the project: October 1, 2020 – October 1, 2021

Brief summary of the project:

Project’s direct target group are specialists: youth workers, social workers, educators – who work with youngsters, and the main beneficiaries are youth aged 12-18.

Project aims to build capacities in the field of working with youth by equipping specialists in partner countries with needed knowledge, skills, and attitudes to prevent violence among and towards children and youth. This will be done through a Youth Group methodology developed by MARTA Center.

During the project period of 12 months a group of specialists will receive training and implement Youth Group methodology as a tool for violence prevention among youth in Baltic states: Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. 4 specialists per country (12 in total) will go through training program, become youth group leaders and implement methodology in local communities of partner countries, and will take active part in competence building seminars and co-visions.

It is estimated that each partner country will organize and lead at least 3 youth groups, in this long-term (5-7 months) group cycle directly involving at least 30 young people per country (90 in total).

Youth Group methodology will be piloted and adapted according to feedback received from participants to make sure that it meets the needs of national and local contexts. To ensure long-term impact, each youth group will organize 1 local activity (9 in total) directly involving at least 15 people locally (135 people in total) with the aim to raise awareness on topics important for youth regarding healthy relationships and violence prevention.

In the project’s final phase an international Youth Forum will be organised in Vilnius, where youth group delegations from each partner country will meet together with local and international stakeholders, youth workers and other professionals to share Youth Group methodology approach, results and acknowledgements with a wider audience.

Youth Group methodology is cycle of guided workshops where young people can come together, discuss and engage in non-formal education activities that cover range of topics starting from friendship, respectful communication, sexual-reproductive health to bystander effect, unhealthy relationships, risks, causes and consequences of human tracking, pornography, and interpersonal violence.

Info pack for participants, for more information reach out to: mic@lygus.lt

 

Project Dare to Care Baltics, CBSS PROJECT SUPPORT FACILITY. Grant No. PSF 2020/1

Cover picture: ezgif.com

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Decoding UN Resolution 1325: Promoting Safety at Home though Greater Leadership

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“We simply can no longer afford to deny the full potential of one half of the population. The world needs to tap into the talent and wisdom of women. Whether the issue is food security, economic recovery, health, or peace and security, the participation of women is needed now more than ever” – Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile

United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security, addresses the impact of war on women and the importance of women’s full and equal participation in conflict resolution, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction. The resolution also calls for special measures to protect women and girls from conflict-related sexual violence and outlines gender-related responsibilities of the United Nations in different political and programmatic areas.

On 22nd of June, 2020, Lithuania adopted second national action plan on Women, peace and security (WPS) for 2020 – 2024. It seeks to strengthen role of women in Lithuanian society and ensure active participation in prevention of conflicts, decision making and creation of sustainable peace.

Women’s Issues Information Centre together with alumna’s of U.S Embassy in Lithuania programs prof. Dalia Leinarte and Rugile Butkeviciute will contribute to implementation of WPS agenda in Lithuania by increasing leadership capacity of women in communities across Lithuania to reduce gender – based violence.

Name of the project: Decoding UN Resolution 1325: Promoting Safety at Home though Greater Leadership

Duration: 09/22/2020 – 07/30/2021

Problem statement: A highly professional team of alumni initiated this proposal in response to the diverse challenges increasingly experienced by local women in Lithuania, including the facts that: 1) every third women in Lithuania experiences gender-based violence, with the estimated cost of violence each year at 600,000 euros; 2) Lithuania scored very low for its progress in achieving gender equality, only earning 55.5 points according to 2019 Gender Equality Index (the global average was 65.7 out of 100 and the EU average was 67.4); and 3) women are underrepresented in power and decision-making positions – Lithuanian government has only one women minister out of 14 positions, and women make-up only 8 percent of leadership positions in local municipalities. There is a clear lack of knowledge of the WPS agenda among local NGO’s and civil society, which results in slow implementation of the NAP. In partnership with high-level organizations, this project will focus on addressing these challenges by conducting an extensive training program for Lithuanian leaders to implement the WPS agenda locally and nationally.

Goals: to support women’s full participation in peace and security efforts, to reduce gender-based violence, and to advance gender equality by increasing women’s political representation and roles in decision-making processes.

Objectives: 

– Strengthen the capacity of NGO’s in Lithuania to implement the second NAP on the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) de facto.

– Enhance visibility and practical transferability of the WPS agenda 2020 – 2024 in the civil society sector by enhancing NGO’s leadership skills on the local and national levels.

– Transfer and multiply WPS agenda by equipping NGOs with practical tools to become experts of WPS in national/ international missions.

Activities:

  1. Development of multilingual online training curriculum on women’s leadership and prevention of gender-based violence;
  2. Implement a training for trainers workshop called “Champions for Women, Peace and Security”;
  3. Conduct workshops for local women leaders;
  4. Host the first ever Women Leadership Forum on Women, Peace, and Security to mark the progress since the anniversary of UN Resolution 1325 (with participation from NGOs from Nordic – Baltic countries as well as Ukraine and Moldova).
  5. Form a group of leaders implementing the WPS Agenda, called “Leaders for Sustainable Peace and Security.”

Project Rresults: 

1. Activity report in EN

2. Video on “Women, peace and security”:

Applicant: Women’s Issues Information centre

Experts of the project: Fulbrigt program alumna prof. Dalia Leinarte and Community Solutions program alumnė Rugile Butkeviciute

 

Project is financed by U.S. Embassy in Lithuania via Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund 2020

 

Let’s join forces to end gender – based violence:

Rugile Butkeviciute

rugile@lygus.lt