“YEAP: Yes to Youth Education against Abuse of Power”

Youth is especially vulnerable to different ways of power abusive practices, due to their economical, emotional, intellectual and social dependency. They are often easily influenced by both peers and adults, even when it implies losing their freedom and rights. This phenomenon is often difficult to detect and counteract, due to low reporting rate and its lack of visibility. It is socially accepted that youth have a lower status, disregarding the real scale of their suffering. Gender based violence and abuse towards young women has always existed, in the history of the humanity but, during the last decade this problem has grown dangerously and gained visibility. Soon it may become one of the most important issues of the modern society and will need to be addressed accordingly.

Whether it is physical, emotional, financial, labor, discriminatory, sexual, psychological, domestic or any other type of personal or interpersonal violence, it needs to be counteracted, with all the strength that can be gathered. Romania continues to be mainly a country of origin for victims of human trafficking, where 28.5% women are victims of physical and/or sexual violence, throughout their lives. Still, adequate specialized services are profoundly underdeveloped and there are no specific measures towards achieving gender equality. This urgency pushes our partnership to look for new ways and possibilities to try to respond to it, appropriately. We strongly believe that more should be done, to give voice and tools to youth in need of support, to stop these abusive and systemic attitudes.

Moreover, Europe is facing a growing economic uncertainty, which in turn provokes an environment far from including young people vulnerable to power abuse, like immigrants, people with disabilities, young women of different religions or ethnicity, etc. European Parliament observed that young migrant women participation rate, in the labour market, is considerably lower and, as a result, they are rather isolated. This partnership feels obligated, not only to provide direct attention and social inclusion services to the abused youth victims, but also to raise awareness in our communities, and especially among its young members, about the importance of protecting the most vulnerable and defend their human rights. Therefore, one of our priorities is to fight gender violence and abuse of power, not only in Romania, Spain and Italy, but in Europe in general. That is why we formed the partnership with partners who wish to work for the same cause, so that every organisation can gain new insights, exchange best practices and views to address it and how to confront gender violence and abuse.

We adopted the following project objectives:

1. To exchange knowledge, best practices and methodologies, to counteract gender violence and power abuse, among young people. We seek a deeper understanding of gender violence victims and their situation at all levels, as this knowledge is essential for creating new ways and procedures for supporting them.

2. To increase the awareness level regarding the abuse of power, experienced by young people, especially young women and youth from minority groups. We want to raise awareness level of most vulnerable gender violence and abuse of power victims (immigrants, refugees, people with disabilities, LGTBQI, with criminal records, etc.) especially when it comes to the young people.

3. To strengthen alliances, at the regional, national and European level with entities that fight
to counteract gender violence and power abuse.

• 1st Transnational Meeting (Kick-Off) in December 2021: Spain

During the first transnational meeting, the coordinators will meet face to face, which will enable them to better understand the context of each entity, as well as observing its strengths and weaknesses.

• 2nd Transnational Meeting (Final Evaluation) in March 2023: Romania

During the evaluations, the indicators related to the satisfaction of the participant, with the collaborative work and with other participants will be measured.

• C1: Participatory Visit in Italy

The goals of this activity are to:

-gain deeper knowledge on how to fight for gender equality and prevent gender violence.

-comprehend the best practices carried out by ORIEL in youth work.

-obtain “Non-Violent Communication” methods.

-obtain other tools used by ORIEL to prevent cyberbullying and violence against LGTBQI groups.

-visit and share round tables with local associated entities relevant to the youth work and gender issues.

• C2: Participatory Visit in Romania

The goals of this activity are to:

-comprehend the systemic abuse suffered by young people

-learn the best practices used by Explorator fighting violence and power abuse, and raising awareness

-obtain Explorator’s tools to prevent gender-based violence

-obtain other tools used by Explorator to identify and break the cycle of oppression of everyday

-sexist and violent behaviours, and its prevention, especially against minority groups.

-visit and share round tables with relevant local entities working on counteracting power abuse among young people, to better understand the current situation in Romania.

• C3: Training Course in Spain

The objective of the course in Spain is to transfer the best practices to counteract gender violence and abuse towards young people acquired in the previous participatory visits and to gain knowledge about emotional management, to make it easier how to face and overcome situations of any kind of violence.

In order to define and measure the impact of the project in a proper way, we used the Impact + Tool recommended by the National Agency from UK. It is expected for the project to have the following impact on the following groups:

*Participants:

– Youth workers: The anticipated impact on youth workers directly participating in the project is to improve their methodologies and knowledge, broaden horizons, gain new abilities and tools, in order to better approach their daily tasks regarding counteracting violence against youth, especially against young women and their empowerment. This in turn will have a direct effect on the gender abuse vulnerable young groups they work with, since the quality of the educational activities provided by the involved entity will improve, being more effective. The nature of the mobilities will bring certain benefits regarding youth trainers’ confidence and their capacity to work in an international environment.

Multicultural experience will raise their consciousness level regarding the gender related abuse problem, as well as improving their linguistic skills.

-Young people: It is expected that young participants (who attend the course) and the youth workers
(attending the participatory visits and course) will acquire and use the tools, knowledge and best practices that will allow them to face and overcome the situations of abuse, towards themselves or other members of their communities (especially young women and youth with disadvantaged background). It is expected for all the participants to become more active as European citizens, at local, national and international levels, using the working network created, during the project, and to become more interested in developing new project ideas and therefore shaping their own future. Equipped with new tools and methodologies useful for recognizing and fighting abusive situations, they are expected to look for new solutions for this problem. *Partnership: It is expected for the Partnership members to cover their staff necessities, regarding their lifelong learning and how to counteract gender related violence and abuse. They will be able to implement the best practices and tools gained, in their daily work, significantly improving the level of their services.

Upon the project completion, the participating organisations should be able to act as multipliers, sharing and distributing the methodology, knowledge and abilities gained with other organisations which share the same or similar goals. The common project work is expected to serve to strengthen our Partnership. The project will not only allow us to get the tools and best practices from our members, but also from other organisations who supported the project, in one way or another, having the opportunity to establish new partnerships with them. *Systemic: It is expected that other organisations, youth workers and young people raise their consciousness level regarding violence and abusive situations and be able to act accordingly, using tools and best practices which have been presented during the project activities. Additionally, more gender related violence abuse victims and other abused youngsters are expected to be reached and therefore empowered, so they could act upon improving their situation or seek help.