GEAR against IPV II

Project title: Gender Equality Awareness Raising against Intimate Partner Violence – II (GEAR against IPV – II)

Project No: JUST/2013/DAP/AG/5408

Duration: 01.10.2014 – 01.10.2016

Coordinator: European Anti-Violence Network (EAVN)

Partners

• Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS) – Cyprus
• Center for Education, Counselling and Research – CESI (Croatia)
• A.L.E.G – Association for Liberty and Equality of Gender (Romania)
• Plataforma unitària contra les violències de gènere (Spain)
• The Smile of the Child (Greece)

External Evaluator: Professor Carol Hagemann-White (University of Osnabrück)

Project’s website: www.gear-ipv.eu 

Project’s leaflet: English, Greek

Short description of the project

The GEAR against IPV Approach

The GEAR against IPV approach (Gender Equality Awareness Raising against Intimate Partner Violence) is a coordinated action of primary and secondary prevention of Intimate Partner Violence in adolescents’ relationships through interventions in the school or in other settings, that are guided by specially designed educational material and are aimed at secondary school students’ awareness raising and empowerment by specially trained teachers.

The main aim is to promote the development of healthy and equal relationships between the sexes and the development of zero tolerance towards violence by raising teens’ awareness on:

• the characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships
• the influence that gender 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.

Given the fact that almost all children and adolescents attend school, the educational system, at all levels, is the ideal setting for such an effort, where properly trained teachers can play a key role in the implementation of such interventions targeting the general population. The need for implementing in schools interventions related to gender stereotypes and equality, as a means of primary prevention of gender-based violence it is, therefore, imperative.

The GEAR against IPV approach is a proposal for systematic intervention in the school (or other) setting, where girls and boys are invited, through a series of experiential activities, to assess but also challenge their culturally “inherited” gender stereotypes and to approach differences between sexes as individual differences rather than as characteristics of superiority of one sex over the other.

Main Activities of the GEAR against IPV Approach

Teachers’ Training Seminars aiming to:

• theoretical and experiential training of teachers on issues related to gender stereotypical attitudes, gender equality and gender-based violence in adolescents’ relationships
• capacity building and skills development for the implementation and evaluation of the adolescents’ awareness raising workshops in school or other settings
• development of skills related to identifying, handling and appropriate referring of cases of abuse of children and teens they may face.

Adolescents’ Awareness Raising Workshops “Building Healthy Intimate Relationships”

Adolescents are offered, via experiential activities, the opportunity a) to assess and challenge –within a safe environment- their culturally “inherited” gender stereotypes and b) to explore the influence that gender stereotypical attitudes and socially imposed gender roles have on their relationships, as well as how power inequality between the sexes is related to violence against women and girls. Moreover, adolescents are provided with the necessary skills that will enable them to recognize –at an early stage- the unhealthy or even abusive characteristics of a relationship, and also empowered in ways that will enable them to create healthy relationships.

Therefore, the ultimate goal of the workshops is young people less tolerant towards IPV, more knowledgeable of the characteristics and consequences of gender-based violence and equipped with “protection skills” against intimate partner violence and other forms of gender-based violence, for both themselves and the people they know.

The long-term objective of the workshops is adolescents’ relationships to be healthy and based on equality and mutual respect as, in such a relationship, the phenomenon of gender-based violence is impossible to occur. 

The GEAR against IPV ΙΙ Project in 5 countries (Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Romania and Spain) includes the following activities:

• Mapping of preventive and supportive initiatives for IPV and Sexual Violence in adolescents (Country report for Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Romania and Spain)
• Revised/Updated Master Package: GEAR against IPV II Master Package (4 Booklets – Booklet I, Booklet II, Booklet III, Booklet IV)
• Development, cultural adaptation and evaluation of three National Packages (for Cyprus, Romania, Spain) and update of the existing Greek (Booklet III and IV) and Croatian National Packages (revised editions) 
• Implementation and evaluation of seminars for ~290 teachers and professionals [each seminar’s duration: 24 hours] (Teachers’ Training Seminars: Implementation and Evaluation Report for Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Spain)
  • Policy briefs/factsheets: Overview of the characteristics and evaluation results of Teachers’ Training Seminars in all countries and recommendations on the basis of the experience gained. The publications are entitled: “Building Healthy Intimate Relationships. The Role of School: Evidence-Based Policy Recommendations for Teachers’ Trainings” and are available in English, Croatian, Greek (Cyprus), Greek (Greece), Romanian, Catalan (Spain). The content of national policy briefs is identical with the English one with the exception of policy recommendations that are adapted where needed.
• Implementation and evaluation of ~1.300 adolescents’ awareness raising workshops in secondary schools and other settings (minimum duration of each workshop: 13 teaching hours) [Awareness Raising Workshops with Adolescents: Implementation and Evaluation Report for Croatia, Cyprus, Greece (available in Greek also), Romania, Spain]
  • 5 peer-to-peer informational and awareness raising campaigns on gender-based violence, via material and messages that will derive from adolescents’ creations during the workshops in each country 
  • presentation of the project’s results in 5 National Conferences with the active involvement of adolescents and teachers who participated in the workshops 
  • Policy briefs/factsheets: Overview of the characteristics and evaluation results of Adolescents’ Awareness Raising Workshops in all countries and recommendations on the basis of the experience gained. The publications are entitled: “Building Healthy Intimate Relationships. The Role of School: Evidence-Based Policy Recommendations for Adolescents’ Empowerment” and are available in English, Croatian, Greek (Cyprus), Greek (Greece), Romanian, Catalan (Spain).
• European Conference in Athens, aiming to the wide dissemination of the GEAR against IPV approach and its results, as well as to the promotion of developing new National Packages for all EU Member States, candidate and potential candidate countries (Conference’s Factsheet in English). 
• Promotion and lobbying for the incorporation of the educational material and the adolescents’ awareness raising workshops in the school curricula of secondary education

More Information 

• regarding the National Packages and project’s activities in partner countries, please contact with:
  • Croatia: Center for Education, Counselling and Research Ε-mail: cesi@cesi.hr
  • Cyprus: Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies Ε-mail: info@medinstgenderstudies.org
  • Romania: Association for Gender Equality and Liberty Ε-mail: contact@aleg-romania.eu
  • Spain: Plataforma Unitària contra les Violències de Gènere Ε-mail: prouviolencia@pangea.org
• regarding the project and its activities in EU Member States, the permission for developing a new National GEAR against IPV Package, the National Package and project’s activities in Greece or for any other issue, you can contact with European Anti-Violence Network (info@antiviolence-net.eu)