yMIND’s German partner SPI concluded the three-module capacity building for practitioners from Berlin schools to transfer the yMIND  diversity training (good practice 1) into their classrooms. 

The capacity-building serie of training modules„Raus aus der Schublade! Andere verstehen, Vielfalt respektieren“  took place between January and March 2018. It was organised in cooperation with the regional training unit (Verbund 3) of the Berlin senate for education and was announced at the Berlin-wide portal for further trainings (accreditation No 18.1.-774).

16 practitioners attended the training models. They came from three yMIND partner schools that have already been piloting good-practice 1 with their students and five further primary, secondary and common schools. We invited practitioners to come in tandems of two from each school team so they can better support each other while transferring into their own practice.

The modules encompassed: prevention of bullying and violence in school, gender roles, stereotypes and gender equality, diversity, pigeonholing and discrimination. The main attention was put on interactive trying out and reflective discussion afterwards on the variety of methods, compiled by the yMIND good practice 1. The synopsis and the method handout were handed over to everybody at the last session.

The training modules were evaluated very positively. The subjects addressed received 9.6 points (relevance ranking from 0 to 10 points), the interactive methods and exercises -  9.2 points, the theoretical overviews and inputs – 9, the achieved learning objectives – 8.8 points.

The most important learning impact of the training summed up by some participants:

In average the participants assessed the probability with which they would recommend the training seminar to their colleagues with 95% and the probability with which they would implement a yMIND-workshop with their students with 87.5%

To the question what would they do as a result of the training one participant noted:

Website Article AÖF, 08.01.2017

Implementation Country in Focus: Austria

yMIND is an important and innovative project that empowers children and adolescents against all forms of violence and discrimination. As the Austrian project partner we address equality between women and men, equal opportunities, gender-based violence, violence against women and children, domestic violence and diversity. In school workshops we can sensitise and inform adolescents about their human, women’s and children's rights. As long as there is no equality between men and women, there will be little change in the extent of violence against women and children. Therefore, we are pleased to be able to reach many children and adolescents. In the context of yMIND we are able to make an important contribution to the prevention of violence. Not only children should be strengthened and informed, also adults, especially teachers, pedagogues, school social workers, school psychologists, community and migrant workers and as well parents. In 2017, we were able to reach and inform a total of 70 boys and girls, teachers and social workers from three different schools and from a migrant organisation in Vienna. The overall goal of yMIND is to implement this holistic approach in schools. (Local Project Coordinator, Austrian Women's Shelters Network, AÖF, Austria).

About domestic violence but not exactly...

The topic of domestic violence became particularly popular in the recent weeks, especially in relation to the debate on the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence(the Istanbul Convention) by Bulgaria’s parliament. The news and commentaries on the topic this past week left almost unmentioned the news of the new Governmental Program for prevention and protection against domestic violence. The continuing public discussion has shifted the focus of the debate from the problem of protection of domestic violence victims onto the acceptance of the so-called “third gender”. This clearly stresses a very important and obvious conclusion, which we at the Health and Social Development Foundation (HESED) have reached years ago through our work on domestic violence prevention in Roma communities and that is: the sensitivity on all levels of society regarding domestic violence in Bulgaria is shockingly low.

Through the innovative project yMIND, the HESED team works on adapting the effective educational/training model for behavioural change, in a model for increasing the sensitivity towards domestic violence and gender-based violence among the most vulnerable groups in Roma community – pregnant women and young mothers. At the same time, we are attempting to influence the attitude of young men toward their role in the family in order to decrease violence against women.

The campaigns that our teams conduct towards adapting the model, use the natural channels of communication among the youth in the Roma communities and the leaders among them to introduce a different point of view regarding traditional gender roles and expectations. In order to accomplish the desired change we use methods inspired by the theories of social diffusion and group dynamic. The adapted model will be transferred through yMIND toward the three partnering organizations and will be tested in closed Roma communities (in Bulgaria and Greece) as well as in closed migrant communities (in Germany and Austria).

We believe that working with the norms and attitudes regarding domestic violence is the keystone of preventative work and prevention itself is critical for decreasing the incidents of violence against all women… and we work towards achieving positive change.