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Description
According to recent research, as well to our experience in Association Bonsai (elaborated on in question 4.1), young LGBTIQ members do not feel safe openly acknowledging their gender identity, they instead witness a high degree of social distance toward gay people, and do not know who to turn to at school in case they experience peer violence. Every school year there is one or more interventions in Dubrovnik high schools due to violence caused by homophobia or transphobia.
This project aims to support young LGBTIQ people in Dubrovnik through active involvement in support groups, individual psychotherapy, networking opportunities, socializing, entertainment, networking, and volunteering against prejudice through the Living Library - a very effective tool in which the "Living Books" are people who have experienced discrimination, and who can provide readers with a unique opportunity to gain insight into otherwise “invisible” spheres of negative social phenomena. Fighting prejudice in this way contributes to reducing discrimination in society.
By educating and strengthening the competencies of professional staff in institutions and associations, as well as youth workers, we will strengthen the support available for young people in our main target group, while providing the general population of high school students with basic knowledge of identity construction and related discrimination or marginalization. We will be building a community of young LGBTIQ people. Using the premises of Youth Center Dubrovnik (which is also a civil-public partnership) as well as the knowledge and experience of partner organizations, we will create a unique opportunity to expand the local civil society scene, through an initiative that is informal for now, but which we hope will someday develop into a new association that supports democratic inclusion, visibility, freedom, and rights of our LGBTIQ citizens.
Summary of project results
Research conducted in Croatia shows that young LGBTIQ people do not have adequate support from the system and that they are often the target of discrimination. According to their experiences, they lack support at all levels, from education, to the wider public, to support within their own families. The problem is more pronounced in smaller communities, where young people are more often the target of prejudice, discrimination and violence. At least one psychological crisis intervention occurs in Dubrovnik secondary schools every year due to violence caused by homophobia or transphobia.
In 2012, the Bonsai Association conducted a survey ("Pride and Prejudice of Dubrovnik High School Students") on the attitudes of Dubrovnik students about marginalized groups, and the results showed the highest degree of social distancing towards gay people as well as people of Serbian nationality.
Volunteers, members and management staff of the Bonsai association witnessed the experiences of members of the LGBTIQ community and the problems that accompany their upbringing and life. Educators and psychologists in local schools are mostly not trained to work with LGBTIQ people, which further contributes to the problem. According to the results of the research ("Experiences and needs of young LGBTIQ persons") of the Rainbow Family and LORI association, as many as 77% of young LGBTIQ persons do not know to whom they can report violence in high school, more than 50% of the participants encountered mention of LGBTIQ topics at least once in high school in a negative context, while a third experienced it more than once or often.
Dubrovnik is an extremely homo/bi/transphobic environment, from which many people leave because of this problem or remain living on the margins of the City''s social life while concealing their sexual orientation, gender or gender identity. Therefore, young LGBTIQ people remain without positive (LGBTIQ) role models in their environment, and growing up and maturing LGBTIQ youth without positive and safe environments at the local level is accompanied by numerous challenges; fear, insecurity, vulnerability, feeling of exclusion. In such an environment, they do not feel free and safe to explore their new identity - which negatively affects their mental health and the process of self-acceptance.
The project "Dugin put" aims to improve the living conditions of young LGBTIQ people in Dubrovnik and provide opportunities for young people to connect, socialize, have fun, network and volunteer to fight against prejudice.
In order to examine the needs of LGBTIQ+ youth in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, a research was conducted whose goal was to gather and analyse the experiences and needs of young LGBTIQ+ people through topics that covered their coming out experiences, the feeling of freedom and openness around living and expressing their gender identity and/or sexual orientation, experienced violence due to one''s own LGBTIQ+ identity in the local community, and the desire and need for certain content intended specifically for LGBTIQ+ youth in their local community. The research was conducted in two parts. In the first part, a quantitative online survey was conducted in which respondents filled out a survey. In the second part, qualitative research was conducted through three focus groups.
The research served as a basis for further creation of activities within the "Long Way" project, but also as a basis for advocating the improvement of public policies and the work of public bodies and institutions, and in order to alleviate the feeling of marginalization of the local LGBTIQ community.
The findings of the research, among other things, highlight the importance of the existence of places where LGBTIQ+ people can gather in a safe environment, the existence of support, and one of the more important findings, which is the education of the younger population on LGBTIQ+ topics, as well as the education of professionals. The project therefore placed special emphasis on the educational program for strengthening knowledge and competences on LGBTIQ topics among students and professional staff, through which a series of educational workshops were conducted (three-day training for professional staff, helpers and youth workers "Strengthening the capacity to provide support to LGBTIQ persons", ToT - education for youth workers for the implementation of Diversity training, Implementation of education for high school students - youth workers under the supervision of an educator: Diversity training).
Through the project, individual counseling for young LGBTIQ people was organized as an additional form of support and also, social evenings were organized in a safe environment.
At the very end of the project, a participatory decision-making workshop was held (with representatives of partner organizations) on planning future activities of the community of young LGBTIQ people.
By researching the problems and needs of LGBTIQ youth, we have created a relevant and necessary information base for actors in the local community, but also for organizations dealing with the rights of LGBTIQ people in other parts of Croatia. The project opened up opportunities for the community of young people who participated in education, support groups and social activities through this project to explore their future activities and potentially form an initiative that would deal more deeply with this topic. The project provided an opportunity to be a springboard for the organization of the LGBTIQ population and their supporters in Dubrovnik and the surrounding area. After presenting the results of the research with recommendations, decision makers were given the opportunity to shape local policies in a quality and more inclusive manner.
Professional staff and youth workers are trained to understand LGBTIQ terminology and the interrelationships between gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation, the legal framework that regulates the life of LGBTIQ persons, and are empowered to create and implement workshops and activities for LGBTIQ persons, thus creating a permanent resource in the community to support young LGBTIQ persons and prevent marginalization and/or discrimination. Professional staff were given the opportunity to continue cooperation with partner organizations to upgrade the knowledge and skills gained in this project and will be able to sensitize their colleagues within their organizations and institutions as well as encourage their organizations to further build capacity.
The strengthened community of young LGBTIQ people who went through support groups, informal gatherings and made contacts/friendships got the opportunity to use the knowledge of project leaders and partners as support for starting their own initiative and the spatial resources of the Dubrovnik Youth Center to strengthen the structure and reach of their activities in the field of LGBTIQ rights persons and connections with similar and related initiatives and organizations in an informal national network.
In conclusion, the project had an impact on the prevention and reduction of discrimination and violence against and among young people in the local community.