Seminar “Let’s talk about it – sexuality, gender and culture” in Austria

Three people from Greece including one youth worker, one member and one youth leader of YCE took part in a seminar “Let’s talk about it – sexuality, gender & culture” in Klaffer, Austria from 2nd to 10th of November 2018. The hosting organization Kinderfreunde, which was established in 1908 hosted 25 participants coming from Austria, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Lithuania, Portugal and Poland.

Aims of the seminar were to provide non-formal education to youth workers, teachers, youth leaders about sexuality, gender and culture, including themes such as construction of gender, gender roles, sexual violence, LGBT+ issues and rights, social development, diversity, discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes, etc.

The seminar and accommodation of participants was in a countryside family center complex, in the middle of a natural paradise – hills, lakes and small villages.

Activities during the seminar included informal experience exchange, role play exercises, aesthetic research, group discussions, visits of historic places related to discrimination, hate crimes of genocide and more. Participants learned specific mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion, models of non-formal educative activities related to the topic, basics of several art fields that can be used in aesthetic research of social issues, how to deal with sexual abuse, and discrimination based on the themes of the project and how to identify violence.

In addition, after this seminar the participants used their newly gained skills to create weekly local discussion groups on socially sensitive topics in the youth center in Ioannina.