1 / 26

Engaging Young Men as Allies in Ending Violence and Promoting Gender Equality

Engaging Young Men as Allies in Ending Violence and Promoting Gender Equality. Natko Gereš, MD Youth organisation Status: M. YMI was a pilot program focused on adressing social norms around masculinity and effects they have on violence in adolescent boys.

rue
Download Presentation

Engaging Young Men as Allies in Ending Violence and Promoting Gender Equality

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Engaging Young Men as Allies in Ending Violence and Promoting Gender Equality Natko Gereš, MD Youth organisation Status: M

  2. YMI was a pilot program focused on adressing social norms around masculinity and effects they have on violence in adolescent boys.

  3. Nationalism and political violence • Rigid constructions of what it means to be a man Background

  4. Partnerships in YMI • Secondary Schools in 3 countries • 5 youth work oriented organizations • Lifestyle and social marketing organization • Women’s rights/Gender training NGOs • Local researchers • Ministries for Education and Youth and Sport (at state, entity and cantonal levels) • Media institutions , CSO’s ,Celebrities (sports, entertainment)

  5. Why work with young men • Young men are both victims and perpetrators of violence; • Young men have certain health vulnerabilities and risks that impact their development;

  6. Why work with young men • Confront stereotypes about young men; • Promoting gender equity and gender equitable relationships has benefits for both young men and women; • Gain a better understanding of masculinity (ies) and its impact on young men

  7. Approach • Working with young people • Working with the strengths (not the deficits)

  8. Participatory Learning in Action (PLA) -Exercise conducted with young men in April 2007 -Qualitative research – students from 4 schools in Zagreb

  9. PLA – Exploring Dimensions of Masculinity and Violence • Characteristics of “ideal” men physical strength, protection of honor, defending strong opinions, strong character, being successful in everything, participation in masculine activities (sports and drinking), sexual virility, lack of cowardice (i.e., not acting like a woman, in their words), being heterosexual,...

  10. Young men identified home and school as the two strongest social spaces influencing masculinity

  11. Types of violence- physical, psychological (emotional) and sexual

  12. Many young men expect their peers to join in fights to maintain allegiance to the individual or group; • Violence and honour

  13. Capacity Building with Partners Staff development training program – process of self reflection

  14. Regional Young Men Forum • -20 young men, mainly those who were involved in the PLA and wanted to continue to be active; • -Became important peer catalysts and voluntary workers in the youth organisations.

  15. Intervention: Lifestyle Campaign and Educational Programme

  16. Workshops • 10 sessions covering 20 workshops ( average around 12-15 participants ) Gender, HIV/AIDS, sexuality, SRH, power, homophobia,communication, emotions, violence, mental health, alcohol and drugs, honor and conflict,active society,...

  17. Budi Musko – Be a Man • A lifestyle school based campaign developed • Campaign focused on masculinity related to prevention of violence and promotion of healthy lifestyles

  18. Extracullicular activities

  19. Budi Musko and Media • Media coverage of campaign events • Best Campaign Award – Serbia National PR Agency

  20. Baseline and Endline • 9 technical schools; • predominant male student population; • randomly selected intervention and control; • survey with young men aged 15-19 enrolled (as of February 2009); • over 2500 young men participated from 9 schools.

  21. Understanding the Positive Effect of YMI on Young Men • Evidence to suggest that YMI interventions were meaningful for the young men who participated in the project. • From the survey data, young men who were exposed to the campaign generally showed more gender equitable attitudes and positive changes related to sexual violence and decreased use of violence.

  22. YMI activities may have helped to solidify their attitudes and behaviors in a more positive, gender-equitable and non-violent direction.

  23. Conclusions • Challenging social norms around gender and violence takes time; • Involving parents, teachers, health professionals and other adults is necessary • Providing a space for young men to explore issues of manhood is important; • Young males valued the opportunity to confront stereotypes about themselves and to be allies with girls and women on promoting human rights issues.

More Related