Description
The project is focused on empowerment transgender people across Slovakia, particularly in Estern parts, through building up their self-advocacy skills (specifically in the contact with healh care providers) and on building active community by the development of peer counseling among ttansgender target group. The main tool to achieve this are training sessions on the topic of self-advocacy and peer advisory, which will transfer experience and good practice achieved in NGO TransFúzia within the last 5 years. The goal of the project is to systematize counseling services, create a training system for peer advisors and train people from the chosen regions to provide quality counseling services. The project consists of three main parts: 1. (October 2015) Analyses of already provided counseling services and their systematization; 2.(November – December 2015) Design of counseling toolkit and training; 3. (January – March 2016) Execution of trainings, development of support network of trainees, preparation of acreditation at Ministry of Social Affaires and Family. Counseling services will be provided during the whole project. Project outcomes: 1. 15 people will be trained in providing counseling services to peers and other vulnerable members of trans community; 2. Network of trained peer counselors for their mutual support and further building of trans community; 3. Database of counseling services for the research and statistic purposes; 4. Toolkit „Counseling for trans people“; 5. Training „Counseling for trans people“; 6. Application for acreditation for specialized social counseling at Ministryof Social Affaires and Family. The overal expected outcome is further capacity biult for systematic peer counselling and empowered trans community in regions outside the capital city.
Summary of project results
Peer counseling is mutltiple-function tool that has been used for trans community building, data collection, helping individual transgender people but also for mapping the situation of trans people and advocacy planing. Peer counseling services for transgender community require a large amount of human resources and time. Transgender people need access to specific long term and frequent counseling because they face human rights violations, isolation, rejection from families, verbal and physical violance, bullying at school or employment and various forms of institutional violance in health care. The peer counceling services for all transgender people in Slovakia had been provided on voluntary basis only by three people from NGO TransFúzia before the implementation of this project. The same people were also responsible also for any other agenda related to support of human rights of transgender people in Slovakia – education, advocacy, research, publicity, community builidng, support groups, social events, etc. It was necessary to increase number of active people to keep trans comunity and movement developing, for sustaining the counseling services and extend them into other regions of Slovakia (where Saplinq operates). We have involved into the peer counseling network the people who had been active in the trans community and had potential to become community leaders. They attended the training („Peer counseling for trans people“) designed for this project to gain competency in providing the peer counseling services. We also created databasis for keeping recors about the counseling that will provide statistical data for the quantitative research on the situation of transgender people. These data will be essential for the setting of our next strategic plans and advocacy action. All the participants that attended the training have become members of the peer counseling network and 8 of them activelly provide the counseling services on the regular basis. Main contribution of this project lies in increasing competency and active involvement of members of trans community, which increases access to and sustainability of peer counseling services for the Slovak trans community. The projec empowerd the trans movement in Slovakia has allowed us to focus more resources to advocacy, education and campaining activities towards necessary social and institutional changes.
Summary of bilateral results