Prevention of gender-based violence in international workcamps is a common concern for volunteer organisations, which manage the daily interaction between participants on their collective life projects. However, Youth workers do not always feel able to act in advance of the problematic situations they may encounter, in contexts where people with different socio-cultural backgrounds live together.
In 2021, the responses to the questionnaire disseminated within the Solidarités Jeunesses movement by the working group on «Gender and fight against gender-based violence» highlighted a lack of training and preparation for youth professionals, as well as the need for tools to enable them to support young people in creating safe spaces to discuss issues of gender stereotypes and the various forms of abuse they generate.
The desire to raise these issues at the European level is the starting point of the GIVE-Lab project, which started in April 2022. 10 partner organisations, coming from 8 countries, are gathered around this project coordinated by Solidarités Jeunesses, with the support of the Erasmus+ programme:
- France: Solidarités Jeunesses (coordinator) and Concordia
- Latvia : Active Rainbow
- Austria : Grenzenlos – Interkultureller Austausch (ICYE Austria)
- Spain : Asociación Las Niñas del Tul
- Catalonia: COCAT
- Italy : Lunaria and Associazione Link
- Turkey : Gönüllü Hizmetler Derneği
- Belgium : Compagnons Bâtisseurs
While organisations are making the observation that there are a multitude of resources but which are not always adapted to our contexts, the project aims to provide youth professionals with tools to address the topic of gender based violence. These tools will be the result of an innovative and transdisciplinary training course, resulting from the cooperation between different sectors involved (non formal education, social work, social sciences, art).
GiveLab is a two-years project with three key moments:
3-day international seminar in Liege, Belgium to address the topic with different perspectives – October 2022
5-day international laboratory where participants will meet in France to create an educational tool kit based on the outcomes of the seminar in Belgium – February 2023
National trainings sessions for camp leaders to prevent gender-based violences- Spring 2023