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Description
Conqueer the schools is a 12-month project that focuses on improving the quality of school life for LGBTIQ+ high school students and raising awareness and encouraging school staff and future school staff to actively participate in the creation of safe spaces within the school for queer students. More than one third of Slovenian queer students report that they often or very often hear remarks about their sexual orientation or identity at school. In order for queer young people to be able to have the same conditions for psychological and emotional progression as non-queer individuals, a supportive and safe environment is needed where their orientation and identity can develop. Through comprehensive research, we will provide guidelines for the organization of an optional school program within high schools. The DIH Association located in Ljubljana, in partnership with the Maribor Youth Cultural Centre (hereafter MKC), will organize 4 different activities per month for queer students at a specific high school in Maribor and a specific high school in Ljubljana. One of these monthly activities will be dedicated to the so-called “gay-straight alliance”, where a discussion group will be dedicated to all students, regardless of whether they are part of the queer community or not, in order to strengthen the connection of queer students with others and to increase the acceptance of queer individuals in their school environment. At the events we will go through the basic concepts of a queer community, address issues and problems that queer students have, conduct workshops that improve the mental well-being of the participants, and create a supportive community among them that will remain active in their schools after the end of our project. We will use the publication to encourage (future) teachers and other school staff to organize such activities regularly in their workplaces.