Gender-Based violence (GBV) refers to harmful actions directed towards an individual based on their gender. This phenomenon it is rooted in gender inequality, the abuse of power and harmful norms. It is a serious violation of human rights, human dignity and a life-threatening health and protection problem.

The available data shows that 1/3 of women experience sexual or physical violence during their life-time (UNWOMEN). Globally, 736 million women have suffered from their intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in their life (30 per cent of women aged 15 and older). The situation of Muslim women, women with disabilities and older women are even more severe and they experience different forms of discrimination and are exposed to a higher risk of violence.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, women in violent relationships were forced to stay at home, isolated and exposed to their abuser for long time. This situation put them under a greater risk of domestic violence. On top of this, the development of the digital tools and ICTs, the gender based violence and power abuse takes new forms, not known before and with a high risk for young women.

These cases worry our project partners and to be able to address them Bioville partnered with Pasos from Spain, MIITR from Slovenia and PH from Czech Republic and drafted the project proposal “Youth FIGHT against power abuse: Y- FIGHT”, looking for new ways and possibilities to try to respond to it appropriately.

Young people are highly vulnerable and need more tools, knowledge and awareness to be able to identify the sexist behaviors on vulenrable groupsand non-binary gender, counteract systemic abuse of vulenrable groupsand cyber violence, be more aware of the abuses in the labour market and learn emotional management tools. Therefore, Y-FIGHT Partnership strongly believes that the prevailing abusive systems of power and mindset must be constantly challenged and changed and this is the main focus of the current proposal.

Having in mind the above, we decided to adopt the following project objectives:

PO1. To exchange the most important practices to fight gender-based violence and power abuse among young people.
PO2. To learn new tools and approaches to fight gender violence.
PO3. To raise awareness of power abuses experienced by young people, with special attention to vulnerable groups.
PO4. To strengthen alliances at the regional, national, and European levels with entities that fight to counteract gender violence and abuse.

Y-FIGHT intends to implement the following activities that are directly linked with the achievement of the project objectives:

• A participatory Visit to Latvia to learn from Bioville best practices to counteract systematic abuse of vulnerable groups and cyber violence.
• A participatory visit in Slovenia to learn from MIITR best practices on the identification of sexist behaviors towards vulnerable groups, and PH experiences on counteracting gender and power abuses in the labor market.
• A training course in Spain, hosted by Pasos to transfer emotional management tools to deal with
  and overcome situations of gender violence and power abuse
• Three project meetings in Spain (Kick-off meeting to start the project), in the Czech Republic (intermediary meeting), and a final evaluation meeting in Latvia.
• A Dissemination campaign.
• Internal workshops: in each partner country organized by youth workers who will transmit the knowledge and tools acquired to the young people in their organizations and communities.

By the end of the Y-FIGHT project we hope that the activities planned will help many young people to be more aware of gender based violence and power abuses, be able to identify such cases and be equipped with tools and methods to address them. Therefore, fostering non-violent, gender-equitable and emotionally healthier experiences for many young people.

Therefore, we expect that the young people that will join the Y-FIGHT project activities will become more empowered and be able to stand for their rights. Thanks to the emotional management framework they will acquire relevant competencies to handle harmful cases and emotional distress both in their daily life as well as in their employment. Additionally, young people will be able to share their experiences on-line and in situ, which will foster the dialogue to change the sexist behaviors and gender-based violence in society.

Youth workers and partner organisations will receive training on the topic and will be able to apply these learnings to their organizations & local communities. Another added value for the youth workers that will attend the training course in Spain will be the opportunity to improve their cross-communications skills and gain new competencies from the exchange of best practices on the topic.

It is expected for the project to have the following impact on:

Youth workers & young people:
-will have learned to counteract different forms of abuses
-will have been able to better understand and solve GBV cases on all levels
-will have acquired and applied tools and methods to work on issue related to cyber violence and sexist behavior
-will have learned emotional management tools

YOUTH WORKERS:
-will have learned good practices on empowering vulnerable groups
-will have acquired and applied methods to fight gender and power abuses in the labor market
-will have enhanced their level of awareness about power abuses experienced by young people
-will have reinforced their Erasmus+ knowledge and interest to continue working in new Erasmus+ projects
-will have improved their level of English

YOUNG PEOPLE:
-will have acquired more and better tools to counteract different forms of abuses
-will have been more aware about power abuses experienced by young people
-will have learned to better manage their emotions
-will have acquired emotional management tools to counteract different forms of abuses
-will have enhanced their self-confidence and self-esteem

PARTNERSHIP:
-will have been able to strengthen our position as reference on GBV and power abuse at the national, regional and EU level/s
-will have increased the qualification of our youth workers and staff to work on GBV cases
-will have strengthened our project network to have a bigger impact at the national and EU level
-will have increased our EU participation through new projects and initiatives for young people