Children First: Addressing Gender Based Violence from the bottom-up

Gender-based violence is a widespread problem.  While policy and literature on the issue are slowly growing, “dating violence” amongst children and teenagers remains largely under-researched and unaddressed.

Aim: Children First represents a shared effort to educate school children (aged 12-18) in order to prevent and address dating violence from an early age by undermining gender stereotypes, norms and roles that are the main causes of dating violence.

1. Bottom-up approach: we start from the views of children and young people and understand how they perceive violence in their relationships;

2. User-led approach: in this project, children come first. Children and young people are consultants in the project, as members of the youth-led Advisory Board, which proactively communicates and engages with other young people for the creation and delivery of awareness-raising campaigns, and engages with the staff of the project to create the main tools and content.

3. Children First supports the principle of non-discrimination, of equality between women and men, and the rights of the child. Gender balance is sought in all project activities, no one is discriminated against, and diversity of gender identity and sexual orientation is encouraged. Gender stereotypes and gender roles are undermined and rejected, and principles of equality and inclusion for all are embedded in the whole project.

Preventing and combatting gender-based violence inside and around schools with a focus on dating violence by:

• Creating an evidence base on the phenomenon and collects best practices on how to prevent and tackle dating violence amongst young people;
• Developing an online educational game to challenge gender stereotypes and
• norms leading to violence;
• Developing and delivering a comprehensive and accredited training programme, face-to-face and online, for school teachers and educators on how to prevent and contrast gender-based violence in school;
• Supporting the communication and cooperation of education institutions, human rights organisations, teachers, educators, parents, children and young people via an informal network;
• Running an awareness-raising campaign to support gender equality and
• inclusion among children and young people.

The consortium includes 6 partner entities:

• P1: The IARS International Institute (Project Coordinator), UK.
• P2: Center for Social Innovation (CSI), Cyprus.
• P3: Symplexis, Greece.
• P4: Diversity Development Group (DDG), Lithuania.
• P5: CESIE, Italy.
• P6: Harokopio University, Greece.