Can an online resource, such as a game, support the fight against gender stereotypes, against gender-based violence and contribute to the prevention of sexual violence?
Yes, we believe so.
The mission of the CONVEY project partnership has focused around finding a way to do just that, and being creative about it, so that lay people, and especially young people who are not familiar with gender issues can be inspired to learn and ultimately change their attitudes and behaviours towards gender stereotypes and the sexualisation of women (and men!), especially in digital media.
In the past 7 months, since the beginning of the CONVEY project in September 2016, a lot has happened in the countries of origin of the organisations and institutions that have taken up such challenge.
We have in fact understood the status quo related to gender stereotypes and gender-based violence in all our countries, we have recruited 12 groups of consultants who are fundamental in the project; we have co-developed exciting ideas on how to create a game to raise awareness and contribute to preventing sexual violence and harassment and related topics, e.g. gender stereotypes.
And we have met twice as a whole group: the first time was in Palermo, Italy, in November 2016; then most recently we were hosted in Nicosia, Cyprus, just at the end of March 2017.
Who is involved
We are 6 organisations in 6 countries:
- CESIE, the Italian NGO that coordinates the project
- “Hope For Children” UNCRC Policy Center (Cipro)
- The Smile of the Child (Greece)
- Sexual Violence Centre Cork (Ireland)
- Westminster City Council (Regno Unito)
The people involved in CONVEY are not just a small number of staff from 6 organisations as you would think, though. Overall, across the 6 countries, there are groups made up of young people, teenagers in school, and groups composed of experts and survivors of sexual violence and harassment who are following every step of the project, giving guidance as to the relevance of what the project partners do and develop within CONVEY.
CONVEY is much more than a game
The game is one of the tools that the project uses to inspire a change of behaviour in young people. There are others. In the next couple of years, we will develop and use a training kit for teachers in secondary school on how to support the education of teenagers on gender issues and against gender-based violence; the pilot programme content to raise awareness with young people in school will also be a result of the project.
Moreover, we want young people to hear the voice of the victims and survivors of sexual violence and of sexual harassment, to learn directly from them about the negative consequences of gender-based violence and of the maybe-not-so-obvious link between gender stereotypes, gender inequality and sexual violence. It is for this reason that our expert groups will develop a set of video testimonies, to be embedded in the project game and in a media campaign to raise awareness on the issue.
We still wanted to do more than this. That’s why we decided that the CONVEY products should be tested, in order to gather evidence of any impact they may actually have on the behaviour and attitudes of young people in the 6 countries of the project. A longitudinal study will help us do precisely that.
Want to know more? Please, get in touch with justice@cesie.org and follow us on our FB page and CONVEY project website. Twitter and Instagram coming soon!
“CONVEY – Counteracting sexual violence and harassment: Engaging Youth in schools in digital education on gender stereotyping” is co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme of the European Commission.
