YOUth work against gender based violence in the context of FORced MIgration

The You4Mi project is an intercultural transnational initiative of Capacity Building aimed at enhancing cooperation among Youth Workers, Youth organizations, Women-led and Migrants’ associations in different countries of the world, in Europe, Africa and Latin America. The project encourages innovation and Exchange of Good Practices in the field of Youth Work and Non-Formal Learning as strategic tools to prevent modern slavery in our global society. Special attention is given to the recent Migration Crisis and to the exploitation of migrant young women and girls. Trafficking in women and girls and other forms of forced migration represent a transnational challenge that needs to be tackled through Partnership and International Cooperation. The initiative is centred on the idea that non-formal learning and youth empowerment have extraordinary potentials in the field of preventing Gender-Based-Violence in the Global South as well as in the European society. Gender-Based-Violence - together with low education levels, socio-economic poverty and marginalization - is one of the most relevant root causes at the origin of trafficking and exploitation across the world. In the short run, the project will directly stimulate the active citizenship of the members of the partnerships, a group of youth workers and a group of young boys and girls. Capacity Building Activities will allow civil society organizations active in the field of empowerment of young women and girls to share the good practices experienced in different socio-economic, cultural and geographical contexts: Italy, Bulgaria, Portugal, Spain, Colombia, El Salvador and Nigeria. These youth organizations will jointly organize: • An online Capacity Building course to enhance the skills of youth workers and youth organizations in the field of GBV prevention. • A Global Awareness Raising Campaign promoting the recognition and dissemination of non formal education in this field entitled “Peer-to-Peer against Gender Violence”; the Campaign will be created with the participation of young people.• A Transnational Conference focused on the use of non-formal education tools addressing violence against young women and girls in the context of migration; the Conference will be hosted in Palermo (Italy). The Mobility Activities will actively involve:• 56 Youth Workers selected by the above-mentioned organizations taking part in 2 Transnational Workshops: the 1° organized in Palermo (Italy) and the 2° in Medellin (Colombia). • 35 Youth (boys and girls aged 18-26 years old) from EU and Partner countries participating in a Youth Exchange in Palermo (Italy) where they will live an extraordinary intercultural learning experience. In the long term, the project is expected to strengthen the recognition and validation of non-formal learning in this field by putting at the core of prevention programs youth empowerment, youth self-esteem and girls’ self-determination as precious resources for prevention.