Q-Learning. A sensitisation training for queer issues

"<< Background >>Two surveys conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA 2012 & 2019) on a sample of 140,000 people show that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is widespread in many areas of daily life, not only in leisure and housing, but also in education, access to social services and primary health care. Transgender and intersex people are most affected. And while respect for human rights is important in all areas of life, it is the latter areas of health, social services and education that are the most urgent, as these are the areas on which people are invariably dependent. Changing prejudicial or discriminatory attitudes and/or behaviour requires a lot of education and awareness raising. The Q-Learning project was dedicated to this important work. << Objectives >>The overall aim was to raise awareness about barriers faced by LGBTIQA+ people, decipher cliches, provide educational information while increasing the level of knowledge and promoting diversity and inclusion.The implementation goals of the project were to develop and test workshop designs and contents that provide general information as well as support for specific, work-related issues; to develop a handbook with training material and recommendations on scope and setting of the workshops; to develop so-called ""Spotlight Exercises"" that can be easily implemented in schools, e.g., on human rights in history lessons.Specifically, we wanted to address employees from the three professional fields of health, education and counselling. The background to this approach was the fact that these are areas that affect everyone: Everyone must expect to need medical help at some point; everyone is anchored in the education system and potentially everyone needs support on various topics. Conversely, this means that employees in these three areas must be particularly sensitised and trained in dealing with LGBTIQA+ people if we want to break down barriers and strengthen the trust of queer people in staff of these professions.<< Implementation >>Within the project’s duration, a desk-search was conducted including a keyword collection of relevant terms for planning the workshops - from target group related terms to method related terms; training material was developed based on these results; and workshops were accomplished for people from the three working fields: Health, education and counselling. The whole process was reflected by peers and a Steering Committee of experts in related fields. Over the past year, 26 workshops were held and around 270 people directly informed, who in turn have passed on what they have learnt to their own networks (family, friends).The training materials (the handbook) have ultimately been developed to provide other LGBTIQA+ organisations with tools they can use to run workshops themselves. The Spotlight Exercises are aimed at teachers who want to carry out sensitisation exercises at school. << Results >>Concrete outputs were – always in the three languages: English, German, and Hungarian:Results of a LITERATURE SEARCH, presented in a grid, provide information on subject-related literature, manuals and other teaching materials, both online tools and hard copies.A HANDBOOK with training material with 30 new exercises, half about general topics, and half dealing with three specific fields of work: Health, education, and counselling. The exercises primarily utilise methods of self-reflection, information gathering, and learning to advocate. A WEBSITE: http://www.q-learning-project.euSPOTLIGHT EXERCISES have also been defined: These are exercises that teacher in particular could also integrate into their regular lessons.An IMPORTANT FINDING, although it is not a product, is that it has been shown that it is not often or easily possible to run a longer workshop. This is probably because there is currently a major staff shortage and employers are not willing or do not have the resources to send their employees to long trainings, especially in the health sector. Therefore, short workshops should be planned that nevertheless provide information on the most important topics and, above all, stimulate (initial) sensitisatiov"