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How to prevent gender-based violence
in schools in teen relationships
“Love is all you need” someone used to sing but at times this multi-faceted feeling becomes confused with negative behaviors commonly accepted as ‘signs of love’ within a couple.
This is most true when love starts in its earliest stage and in its earliest forms when children and young people, experiencing for the first-time romantic relationships, may fall in unhealthy interpersonal schemes considering them as normal.
The Children First project has already started!
This DG Justice co-financed project aims at preventing and contrasting school-related gender-based violence with a focus on “dating violence”: violence perpetuated by adolescents whilst dating and prior to becoming adults and forming long-term relationships.
“Dating violence: a phenomenon that concerns violence within the first romantic relationships between adolescents. And that we can't stand by and watch ...”
Gloriana Rangone, Regional representative of CISMAI
Region of Lombardy (Italy)
Children First: at a glance
‘Children First - Addressing Gender Based Violence from the bottom-up’ is a project aimed at preventing and contrasting school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) among children with a focus on dating violence.
It will be implemented in 5 European countries as United Kingdom, Greece, Cyprus, Lithuania and Italy, targeting children and young people from 12 to 18 years old attending secondary schools.
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The consortium
The Children First consortium includes the following four organisations:
The IARS International Institute (UK, coordinator), Symplexis (Greece), Center for Social Innovation – CSI (Cyprus), VSI Diversity Development Group (Lithuania), CESIE (Italy) and Harokopio University (Greece).
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Objective
Preventing and combatting gender-based violence inside and around schools with a focus on dating violence by:
Promoting educational materials,
tools and guides on preventing and contrasting SRGBV and for challenging existing gender stereotypes and norms
Running social media, awareness raising & youth-led promoting messages of gender equality and inclusion shaping gender dynamics among children and young people.
Activities
- Developing a comprehensive training programme (face to face and online) for school teachers and creating a pool of trained trainers accredited with a CPD status;
- Developing and piloting a web-based game for children;
- Designing and implementing an awareness raising and sensitization campaign in all the project countries.
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Children First: Kick-off Meeting
The Children First Kick-off Meeting will be held on 11th and 12th November 2019 in Athens, Greece hosted by Symplexis. During this two-day event members of the CF consortium will meet in order to agree and commonly define project’s activities to be developed, strategies of intervention and a workplan for a common action.
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Co-financed by
Children First is a 24 months project, started on September 2019 and is co-financed by DG Justice – REC Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014 – 2020)
"We teach kids to cross the street safely, but we fail to teach them about relationships free from gender – based violence. Unhealthy relationships start early and last a lifetime, so this subject must be a vital part of education".
Children First: a deeper insight
Preventing and contrasting dating violence
School-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) involves acts or threats of sexual, physical or psychological violence occurring in and around schools, perpetrated because of gender norms and stereotypes, and enforced by unequal power dynamics[1].
It is an emerging phenomenon across Europe with real consequences on children and young people personal and educational development. SRGBV is perpetrated in and around schools, taking place within a context of existing social norms and gender inequities where young people almost unconsciously adopt stereotypical behaviors based on male & female sexuality and roles.
Children First was constructed having in mind a current and urgent European need of addressing gender-based violence among children focusing on dating violence. This is understood as violence perpetuated by children whilst dating and prior to becoming adolescents and forming long-term relationships. It is violence that may or may not come to the attention of criminal justice agents or dealt through formal public structures. It is defined as violence that has serious and long-lasting impact as this is identified by its victims and may include physical, emotional or psychological consequences.
[1] https://en.unesco.org/themes/school-violence-and-bullying/school-related-gender-based-violence
M. is 17 years old and suffered at her ex-boyfriend´s from the first moment they started dating. In her own words:
“It all started in a high-school party where we both got drunk…from there my hell of constant verbal and physical violence started…I did not want to lose him – I was in love- and endured everything in silence…He threatened me with sex videos he had secretly recorded in order to give him money that I had to steal from my parents…At some point I thought of the suicide and did not want to go to school…if only school could have helped me…”.
Innovative contribution
The Children First innovative approach lies in the direct engagement of the target group conducting youth-led dissemination campaigns in the 5 EU countries. This bottom-up approach is also ensured through the realization of an educational game that aim at challenging existing gender stereotypes and norms. The game’s prototype and contents will be developed with the contribution given by an extensive research where opinions, feedback and point of views of the target group will be collected in order to present a set of narratives consisted of real-life scenarios.
Furthermore, the prototype will be early tested by a Youth Advisory Board (YAB) which will be steering the project activities.
Evidences
UK
A recent report of the UK Women and Equalities Committee’s on sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools provides a rather concerning picture. The report evidences that schools are currently failing to adequately respond to and prevent incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence in the school environment. Further more teachers have raised the issue of poor guidance in this area as contributing to the problem.
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Lithuania
In 2016, the Parliament of Lithuania released the Decision on Ensuring Protection against Domestic Violence and strengthened parliamentary control on the government to safeguard effective prevention of domestic violence and support for victims. As a result, the Ministry of Education and Science approved Recommendations for schools on indicators to identify domestic violence and response to potential domestic violence cases if suspicion rises.
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Italy
National Guidelines (published by the Ministry of Education in 2015 and valid until the end of 2018) titled “Educate to respect: for the equality between the sexes, prevention of gender-based violence and all forms of discrimination” set the principles and teaching content for the promotion of respect and gender equality for all levels of compulsory education.
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Cyprus
Efforts have been made to improve awareness and coordination of different actors about domestic violence with the preparation of a Manual of Interdepartmental Procedures. Although issues such as gender equality, gender based violence and the right to personal integrity are included to some extent in the health education school curriculum of the Ministry of Education, comprehensive sexuality education at all education levels is needed.
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Greece
The National Action Plan on Gender Equality 2016-2020, which constitutes an initiative taken by the General Secretariat for Gender Equality (GSGE), i.e. the governmental organization in charge of equality between women and men, comprises six policy areas with concrete objectives and distinctive synergies with competent stakeholders, covering in that way all fields of both public and private life in favour of young women and men, as well as girls and boys.
Violence based on gender as a result of inequality in social roles and power differentials is a growing issue at all ages across the social spectrum. In the UK, it is estimated that 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime, while some 400,000 women are sexually assaulted each year. Most disturbingly, there is an increasing incidence of teenagers in abusive relationships. The potential for such violence is magnified in situations of vulnerability and coercion and can be of an explicit sexual nature or result in trafficking for sexual exploitation. Most unfortunately, statistically, violence against women and girls is mainly committed by men close to them, such as intimate partners and family members, taking on a variety of forms, ranging from verbal and sexual harassment in public to physical violence in domestic situations, and often witnessed by children. Because such acts are often overlooked and obscured through everyday relationships, victims are often shamed into silence and raising awareness of these issues and the support that can be accessed is of critical importance.
Partnership
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Contact:
CESIE
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This document was funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme (2014-2020). The content of this document represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.