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Description
Studies indicate that the phenomenon of discrimination is not only present and consistent in Romania, but also that young people are amongst the most affected. In the context of a daily climate filled with hate speech, it’s necessary to create mechanisms in educational institutions to fight against homophobia and transphobia. The analysis of the policies of the major universities in Bucharest, Cluj and Timișoara indicates mere provisions regarding discrimination, taken from the national legislation, without adopting procedures regarding the monitoring and combating discrimination on the basis of sexual and gender orientation or administrative procedures for respecting gender identity of trans people, procedures regarding accommodation for LGBTQIA+ students; creation of a LGBTQIA+ academic fund relevant to university disciplines and research. In the absence of a representative LGBTQIA+ student body, the advocacy actions are limited to legalistic discourse, with no concrete results. The project will change the climate of acceptance of LGBTQIA+ students in the university environment by increasing their capacity to self-organize and create models of university policies. The beneficiaries are 428 young LGBTQIA+ who will be involved in the activities pertaining to evaluating and monitoring LGBTQIA+ acceptance in universities, Campus Pride summer schools, piloting Campus Pride Centers as safe spaces for LGBTQIA+ youth and as adoption models for improvement, as well as running local advocacy campaigns. Moreover the project develops an innovative approach to these issues by piloting a Campus Pride Index to evaluate the university environment for LGBTI students. The project involves the Icelandic organisation Samtökin ’78, who contributes in developing the Index. In addition, the DS partner is invited to attend the Campus Pride Summer School where it will be involved in an exchange of experience and knowledge on topics such as innovative fundraising techniques, advocacy.
Summary of project results
The project ran for 20 months and aimed at changing the climate of acceptance of LGBTI youth in the university environment by increasing self-organization capacity and developing models of university policies.
A series of activities were carried out in 3 university cities in Romania (Bucharest, Cluj, Timișoara) such as: piloting 3 student centres which acted as safe spaces for the beneficiaries through 9 launch events, 39 community meetings, 32 social events with 959 young people being involved (the events were self organised by the students and the themes varied accordingly to their interests and needs - study sessions, arts&crafts, board games, quiz nights, gardening etc.); publishing a Campus Pride Report; running local advocacy campaigns and local planning sessions (1. identifying of needs and priorities of local communities in relation to the authorities, allies, the community with the help of representatives of formal or informal groups in local LGBTQ communities, and friends and allies of the community; 2. organising local trainings for the dissemination of good practices brought back from the visit in Iceland on themes such as community and youth organization, fundraising methods for LGBTQ events, the cooperation of civil society organizations with state institutions to cover LGBTQ inclusion policies and the presentation of the University of Reykjavik as a model for creating a climate of inclusion and respect for queer students; 3. production of promotional materials that were extensively used within the project activities); organising discussions with stakeholders from universities; mapping university inclusion in Romania; consulting vulnerable people and piloting an index in 10 faculties through calibration sessions, a launch conference and evaluation reports. The communication of the activities was done through the campus-pride.ro website, the websites of the PP and partners, and various social media pages, with a total audience of 617,526 people and 57,707 interactions.
The project involved a total of 2787 beneficiaries, most of which part of the vulnerable group of LGBTI youth. The activities implemented developed the LGBTI student leadership by organising a summer camp; provided safe spaces and ran activities throughout the school year in the three student centers (events such as study sessions, arts&crafts, board games, quiz nights, gardening, hangouts, mental health talks, banner making etc.); assessed the degree of LGBTI acceptance in universities through the Campus Pride Report; ran 3 advocacy campaigns (organised local trainings for dissemination of good practices from the study visit in Iceland; organised local planning sessions with the advocacy expert in order to identify the needs and priorities of local communities of LGTBI students and creating succinct messages that communicate these needs and that can be used as Pride slogans; produced promotional materials that were extensively used within the project activities, especially during Pride events); strengthened the bilateral relations with the Icelandic partner and increased the organisational capacity by documenting best practices in Iceland through a study visit, but also through organisational development activities such as trainings and courses.
Lessons learned: need for safe spaces for LGBT youth; need for inclusion measures in the university; there is a high percentage of pro-LGBT teachers; student associations are pro-LGBT.
Summary of bilateral results
The collaboration with the Icelandic partner Samtokin 78 was a good opportunity for the PP to accumulate information on Icelandic best practice models, integrating them both in the Campus Pride National Report and in its practice within the Campus Pride centers. Overall, the collaboration solidified the relations between the promoter and the Icelandic partner, a relationship continued in other instances, such as ILGA-Europe, where both organizations are members.