Diversity Education / Subject-Specific /

Introduction | Religious Diversity | Overcoming Antisemitism | Overcoming Islamophobia | GENDER-BASED DISCRIMINATION & HOMOPHOBIA


FRUITCAKES



Issues related to gender and sexual discrimination arise regularly in CEJI’s work with young people. With this in mind, the European Peer Training Organisation (EPTO) is taking the lead on the development of a gender-based discrimination/homophobia training module entitled ‘Fruitcakes: Peer Training tackling gender and homophobic discrimination in youth environment’ which will form a basis for adaptation and integration into the A CLASSROOM OF DIFFERENCE™ programme.

The result of combined efforts of four organisations – EPTO, Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH), NANE Women’s Rights Association and Kommunikation und Bildung (KomBi) – and supported by the European Commission’s YOUTH Programme and the European Youth Foundation, the programme aims to empower young people to become activists against gender-based discrimination and homophobia within their youth organisations and schools.

The project FRUITCAKES is taking place in the framework of the All Different, All Equal European Youth Campaign for Human Rights, Diversity and Participation, initiated by the Council of Europe.

EPTO is available for establishing partnerships with organisations who wish to deliver FRUITCAKES training module to their members. If you are interested in bringing the FRUITCAKES programme to your organisation or community, please contact European EPTO Co-ordinator Julie Godfroid

For further details about the FRUITCAKES initiative see www.epto.org.

Pilot FRUITCAKES Training Session

The pilot training session took place in Budapest from 18 to 24 March 2007, hosting 20 youth workers and young volunteers in the Council of Europe’s European Youth Centre in Budapest.

It was an intense week of activities, where team and participants went on journey of self reflection about their own gender socialization, analysing gender-based discrimination in our societies and thinking of possible ways to confront it.

The experiences and backgrounds of the participants were very varied, from total unfamiliarity to concepts of gender or the perspective of young people who are not heterosexual, to LGBT activists. The mix made the group interaction more complex in terms of learning process but rich in a peer-to-peer level. The course ended with a general feeling that discussing gender and its connection to homophobia is relevant, not only for young people, and that a longer-term strategy to work on this topic should be developed.
For further details or to book a training session, please contact Educational Programmes Manager Ruth Friedman.