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Description
Bulgaria is among the EU Member States with worst acceptance of LGBTI people by the family and the society. Against this backdrop the LGBTI community and its young members most of all suffer from serious psychological, health and social problems such as depressive states, homelessness, risky behaviour, difficult adaptation. Before our organization was set up, there were no publicly available resources to support young LGBTI people. That is why our Foundation aims at supporting, motivating and empowering LGBTI youth through a bottom-top approach. The project aims at developing support in the form of online and offline platforms for disseminating information and raising the awareness of the general public on LGBTI issues in order to achieve a systematic change. We plan to work with young LGBTI people, psychologists, social and health workers and representatives of institutions and build partnerships together to change the policies concerning LGBTI people. We believe that in order to have a healthy and viable community, its individual members have to be motivated, activated and empowered though a holistic approach of information, support, an opportunity to express their opinion and better acceptance in the environment they live in.
Summary of project results
The main objective of the project was to motivate and empower LGBTI youth through the development of multifaceted support in the form of accessible free services, online and offline platforms for creative expression, as well as professional training for support professionals working with our target group. The project sought to introduce and develop innovative methods to improve public awareness of LGBTI issues to achieve systemic change. The project activities fall into three main categories: free professional trainings for social workers on a national level; online and offline platforms and spaces for young LGBTI artists; a report with results from a national survey and advocacy activities.
Thanks to the efforts of the project team, as well as through successful partnerships with professionals in the field of psychological support at a national level, it can be concluded that the planned activities have led to an improvement in the general awareness of LGBTI issues among supporting professionals. Working with young artists has highlighted the increasing public interest in LGBTI-themed art and laid the foundations for long-term cultural partnerships that will continue to develop beyond the project. In addition, the showcasing of young artists in the GenerationArt section continues actively even after the official end of the project due to the great interest from young artists from all over the country.
Despite the unforeseen circumstances related to the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced the postponement of some of the events, all planned activities were implemented. As a result of the efforts of Single Step’s team, trainings were held in 8 cities in Bulgaria, attended by over 120 supporting professionals. Two artistic workshops were held for more than 20 emerging young artists in different fields of art, who met with numerous Bulgarian and foreign mentors. Additionally, the work of 36 young artists was presented in GenerationArt. There were also 9 cultural events showcasing the work of young artists - solo and group exhibitions, special screenings and interactive cultural activities. As part of our advocacy work in partnership with Bilitis Resource Centre, the report "Attitudes towards LGBTI Students in Bulgarian Schools" was presented, based on the first ever national survey [EN summary is available at the end of the report], which highlighted the need for systematic change to improve the climate in Bulgarian schools.
Thanks to the efforts of the project team, as well as through successful partnerships with professionals in the field of psychological support at a national level, it can be concluded that the planned activities have led to an improvement in the general awareness of LGBTI issues among supporting professionals. Working with young artists has highlighted the increasing public interest in LGBTI-themed art and laid the foundations for long-term cultural partnerships that will continue to develop beyond the project. In addition, the showcasing of young artists in the GenerationArt (https://singlestep.bg/en/generation-art/) section continues actively even after the official end of the project due to the great interest from young artists from all over the country.