Call for participants: Struggle for equality continues: mapping the road to gender equality in youth organisations (13-18 Oct, Berlin)

Description of the activity
With this activity IUSY is planning to expand and strengthen the reach of gender mainstreaming policies, to provide space for young people and youth organisations to set up goals that go further than gender parity and develop tools that will allow their organisations and the youth sector to assure true gender equality. This strategy does not end by electing young women in leadership (while this in itself represents an important step forward) – the further challenge is the empowerment of all young people to assume even more active roles in working towards achieving a truly inclusive culture in our organisations and parties and reinforcing our efforts in combating exclusion, discrimination and violence.

IUSY will in this way return to focus on gender equality as one of the core requirements foran inclusive organisational culture and a fundamental basis for open and democratic youth organisations. This represents our next step in reaching beyond the policies and mechanisms for ensuring gender parity, to work on establishing an environment in which young people of all genders work together in a respectful and sensitive atmosphere, enabling each of them to give their best contribution to the shared goals and aspirations.

The participants in this activity will have the chance to give their contribution to this struggle. They will outline an advanced strategy for gender mainstreaming in youth organisations to bring about equal participation and visibility at all levels of the organisational structure, including leadership, representation and decision-making and unite young people and youth organisations in joint efforts for equality and against gender-based stereotypes, disrespect, harassment and violence. The participants will have the chance to explore the gender issues in their own organisations and our movement, getting an open view of the actual situation concerning gender equality and the impact of gender mainstreaming policies so far. They will investigate the understanding of the terms of gender identity and the extent to which gender diversity is respected in youth organisations. They will explore the reach of gender equality, while on the other side recognizing the challenges, including any type of gender-related discrimination and researching the mechanisms that the organisations are putting into action to face these threats and combat all types of inequality. Finally, they will set advanced goals for gender equality in youth organisations and design tools (guidelines and methods for concrete cases and situations) to carry them out – the IUSY toolkit for gender equality in youth organisations, which will be shared in our global movement and with our partner youth organisations, as well as a series of regional workshops to be realized by the IUSY Feminist Working Group in order to get additional input and approaches and rise the reach of the activity to global level in our movement.

Aim

The main aim of this activity is to design an advanced strategy for gender mainstreaming in youth organisations in order to assure equal representation and visibility of all actors and a joint struggle against all types of gender-based discrimination, including gender-based bias and stereotypes, disrespect and harassment and gender-based violence. The activity will contribute to reinforcing our ongoing struggle for inclusion and against discrimination and violence, starting from youth organisations active in our global movement and expanding further among the youth sector.

Objectives

• To strengthen the understanding of gender identity and recognize the importance of gender equality in youth organisations and our movement

• To comprehend the current situation in youth organisations regarding gender equality and the main challenges and issues to address in order to improve further

• To set short- and long-term goals for improvement of gender equality in youth organisations and design an advanced strategy to reach the defined goals

Participants profile

• 18-30 years old

• Grass root youth activists from IUSY partner/member organizations

• Interested in the topic of gender equality, feminism, youth activism, political participation, youth empowerment

• Interested in and strong motivation in being part of the follow up of the activity

Daily programme

How to apply

To make sure that everyone has equal chance in participating, participants must apply via online application form by clicking here or copy pasting the following link

https://forms.gle/FQFfvUqPqarH8has6

DEADLINE for registration is 8th of August, 2019.

DEADLINE for receiving application result is 12th of August, 2019.

Selection of the participation will be based on several criteria, such motivation for taking part in this activity, readiness to continue working towards expanding youth participation and their commitment and readiness to take part in the follow-up activities as well as age and gender.

Eligible member/partner organisations per country

According to the rules of the project, participants coming from Council of Europe member countries are eligible to apply.

Costs

There is a 30-euro participant contribution. All other costs such as travel, accommodation, meal will be fully covered by the project.

Travel information

Arrivals and Departures

Day of arrival for the activity is the 13th of October and day of departure is the 18th of October.

Please make your travel arrangements accordingly and do not forget that IUSY will not be able to cover accommodation or any other additional expenses for participants who need to stay additional nights. You should contact the project coordinator to confirm your flight ticket before purchasing it.

Travel reimbursement

As soon as your participation is confirmed, we strongly advise you to communicate with the project coordinator in order to organise your travel and buy your tickets as early as possible to avoid high costs. All travel reimbursements will be made in euro via bank transfer after the activity.

Cost of travels must be proven by original documents. Therefore, please do not forget to keep and hand in ALL of the following documents at the activity:

Flights:

1. Booking confirmation, itinerary and ticket (if the amount is not mentioned, you should provide an invoice or a bank statement)

2. Original boarding passes for all flight segments for both ways

3. Local travel tickets, where relevant

4. Your bank account details

Train/coach:

1. Booking confirmation, itinerary and ticket

2. Original, stamped tickets for all journey segments

3. Local travel tickets, where relevant

4. Your bank account details

Car:

1. Petrol receipts and a calculation of the kilometric allowance (itinerary showing the number of kilometers and kilometric rate used)

2. Origin address and route map

3. Your bank account details

Car sharing:

1. A statement signed by both by the driver and the traveler including the name of the traveler, the name of the driver, the dates of the journey, the itinerary and the number of kilometers and the amount paid.

2. Your bank account details

Visas

The IUSY Secretariat will support visa applications for the activity. If you require a visa for Germany, please send a copy of your passport to iusy@iusy.org as soon as possible, so the secretariat can draft a visa invitation letter for you. You need to make an appointment at the embassy/consulate and prepare required documents by yourself.

Accommodation and meeting venue

The accommodation and project venue will be sent to all participants nearer the time, at least one month in advance of the activity.

IUSY_EYF_invitation_october2019

Contact

Gohar Ghandilyan | IUSY Project Manager

Email: iusy@iusy.org or gohar.ghandilyan@iusy.org

Phone: +43 699 135 32 960

We are looking forward to receiving your application!