During school year 2010-2011 (February – June 2011), 17 teachers trained by EAVN in the framework of the “GEAR against IPV” Project (with financial support from the DAPHNE III Programme of the European Union) implemented 13 experiential “GEAR against IPV” workshops with 252 students (109 boys and 143 girls) of secondary education in 13 Junior and Senior High Schools of Greece (Attica, Patra, Larissa, Serres, Milos). The ultimate goal of workshops was to promote the development of healthy and equal relationships among young people and to encourage the development of attitudes of zero tolerance
towards violence via their awareness raising on:

  • the characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships
  • the influence that stereotypical attitudes and socially imposed gender roles have on their relationships
  • how power inequality between the sexes is related to psychological, physical and/or sexual abuse against women/girls and
  • how adolescents can contribute to the prevention of all forms of gender-based violence.  

The workshops were implemented and evaluated on the basis of the methodology and the activities described in detail in Booklets III and IV that were developed in the framework of the project (www.1st.gear-ipv.eu/node/26).  

The duration of workshops in Greece ranged from 11 to 30 teaching hours in different schools, while via the implementation of additional (extracurricular) activities, the duration of workshops was increased (from 12 hours & 45 sec to 35 hours in different schools). The additional activities conducted outside of the regular school curriculum included:

  • participation of students in a school festival organized for the school community (teachers, parents and students aged 13-18 years) in order to present the health education and environmental education programs that were implemented in various schools belonging to the same area; students prepared a poster about the workshop they participated in and disseminated to the participants Handout 1 of Booklet IV entitled “Is your relationship equal and healthy or not? 
  • students developed a song in regards to their participation in the workshop which was presented to the school community during the presentation of all educational programs that were conducted in the school 
  • students participated in educational visits that were organized by the implementers (e.g. educational visit to the office and to the Library on Gender & Equality of General Secretariat for Gender Equality, NGO Daphne, Arsis, Ombudsman for Children, Center for Prevention OASIS) 
  • students prepared a presentation on their participation in the workshop and presented it to the local school community 
  • students edited and presented to the school community a theater play entitled “Violence and Sexually Transmitted Diseases” 
  • students edited and presented to the school community a fictional story accompanied with a variety of drawings that they had drawn themselves and a song that they written related to characteristics of healthy, unhealthy and violent relationships, gender stereotypes and gender roles and gender equality. 

The number of activities that were implemented ranged from 7 to 37 in different schools  –which are included in Booklets III & IV.   

According to the evaluation results, students were highly satisfied with their participation in the workshops and the vast majority of students replied that they would like to participate in another similar workshop in the future (86%) and they would you recommend to a friend of theirs to participate in a workshop like this (87%).

In addition, 94.8% of the students believes that these kinds of workshops should be or most probably should be carried out in the school setting, and 89.1% of them believe that these kinds of workshops should be or most probably should be conducted by the teachers. 

Last but not least, below are presented some of the students’ thoughts when at the end of one of the workshops, the implementer asked them to write down “what is your impression for the Workshop?”:

“I feel safe because now I am able to recognize when a relationship can turn into a violent relationship and when it is healthy…”

“…at the beginning of the workshop I felt awkward because I was ashamed to talk in front of others about my feelings. However, progressively, when we were divided into groups, I felt nice and I liked completing the worksheets a lot. Now I feel safe. I feel that I know when a relationship is healthy or not…”

“…the program was very nice and I learned many things. I liked that we were discussing among ourselves…
I will never forget what we did, I liked everything we did…”

Indicative results of the implemented and evaluated Teachers’ Training Seminar and Students’ Awareness Raising Workshops are available on the project’s website in English, and specifically at the Project’s Final Report that was submitted to DG Justice.