More information
Description
The project No means No will help contribute to a change of attitude among teens towards sexual assaults against girls through the approach of strategic communication based on personal stories. Two youth teams (2 х 20 young people) in the town of Kyustendil and the city of Varna will be trained to create films based on true stories: a youth TV series (Kyustendil) and 10 short films (Varna), disseminated via a specially created YouTube Channel, promoted widely in the social media and the mainstream media. The Kyustendil team will be supported by students from Krastyo Sarafov National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia and the Southwest University in Blagoevgrad and the team in Varna will be supported by experts from the Bulgarian National Television in Varna. the project plans to hold an arts academy for young people for creation of video materials and a strategic communication campaign (NO means NO), carried out with the help of an advertising agency, which will reach more than 500.000 citizens: parents, teachers, etc.; 150.000 adolescents below 18. The poster campaign in 100 schools in the country and online discussions with school students will prompt young people to fight against sexual violence in school. The young people will involve competent institutions in addressing the issue at a National Conference attended by representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science and Regional Education Inspectorates, NGOs and teachers. The project partnership will help reach the target audience in different regions across the country and directly involve young people from vulnerable groups (the Roma, youth with disabilities), who will present their opinion about the issue. The project addresses the issue through a bottom-up approach, a change of the attitudes of young people and involvement of the competent institutions.
Summary of project results
The project aimed to support the creation of new policies for the primary prevention of sexual violence against girls (14-18 years), to explore the causes, consequences and possible approaches to prevent gender-based violence by raising awareness of the importance of the issue. The project targeted public policies and practices related to domestic and gender-based violence through strategic communication based on personal stories and advocacy campaigns addressed to youth, parents, teachers.
The project was implemented in partnership with My Town Association from the city of Varna. Two youth teams of 20 young people each in Kyustendil and Varna were formed and trained to make films based on real stories. A 10-part youth series in Kyustendil and 10 short films in Varna were produced and distributed on the project''s YouTube channel. A bilingual website in Bulgarian and English (https://neznachine.org) and a YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@neznachine) were created. A national strategic communication campaign was carried out through a poster campaign in secondary schools in Kyustendil and Varna and an online Handbook for Recognising, Preventing and Combating Sexual Violence and Bullying at School was created for young people, parents, and teachers. Public policies and practices on domestic and gender-based violence were discussed and debated during a National Youth Conference in Varna with representatives of the target groups.
The most important results of the project’s implementation are the established sustainable partnership between the two organizations from Kyustendil and Varna, which led to reaching the target audiences in different regions of the country, and the increased awareness among young people about the need to combat sexual violence at school through the created video products and the implemented strategic communication campaign under the slogan "No means No". In this way, the project has contributed to increasing civic activism in the field of human rights protection and gender-based violence prevention.
By participating in the implementation of the main activities - Youth Art-Academy and filming a youth YouTube series and short films, as well as in the National Youth Conference in Varna, the young people as a target group were empowered to speak out about the issue of sexual violence against teenage girls.
The dissemination of the videos - the 10-part youth series and the 10 short films - on the project''s YouTube channel and on social networks resulted in reaching nearly 300,000 users and more than 620,000 video plays of the films on FB/Instagram, about 100,000 views on the project''s YouTube channel with more than 1,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 followers on TikTok and increased their sensitivity to the issue of sexual violence.