Breaking the Cycle - An Action Guide on the Prevention of Gender-Based Violence Among Youth

Launched in 2017, Breaking the Cycle is a project that aims at building capacity in the field of youth, increasing the capacity of organizations working in the area of gender-based violence (GBV) by responding to the need for specific, innovative methods and programs to work with youth in preventing and resisting gender-based violence. The project is intended to build, initiate, and strengthen new and existing programs combating GBV in different parts of the globe, and to provide tools for working with young people.

With the aim of fostering international cooperation and exchanges in the fight against GBV as well as to promote transnational non-formal learning mobility, the project has been conducted by organizations from six countries: CERUJOVI (Spain), KEDE (Greece), BWHC (Bangladesh), LACC (Nepal), CHSJ (India), and YOUTH FIRST (Madagascar). Study visits, international and national trainings, and local workshops have allowed this manual to be proved and to present effective tools to work with youth in the field of GBV, being the present training manual developed as a collaborative work between these organizations and it is, therefore, the result of their joint expertise in the fields of youth and gender-based violence. Moreover, this manual comes together with a Guide of Good practices in preventing GBV, sharing initiatives from the partner countries, to encourage others to take action by enhancing knowledge from their shared experiences on the frontlines of GBV.

This manual is a guide for trainers in youth clubs, associations, centers, schools, or any other structure working with and for youth and youth development. The curriculum can be implemented as a whole or some activities can be selected and adjusted depending on the needs of each training program. It is planned based on different steps to get to work in this field with youth, so depending on which skills are more demanded, and depending on available time, it will be possible to go directly to the terms and objectives anyone wants to reach.

By the end of this manual, there will be a general view how different elements contribute to generate and perpetuate gender based violence. At the same time, it will give some keys to prevent and stop GVB with own tools, especially in a youth context. Trainees should be able to understand concepts related to gender, sex and gender-based violence, or how social constructs influence our perceptions of gender. This manual also help recognizing and identifying the different types of masculinity and how they relate to GBV, and encourage activism through advocacy against GBV. Summarizing, gaining a generic understanding of different approaches to prevent and respond to GBV in order to start taking actions to break the cycle of gender-based violence.

The objectives of the Present Training Manual are:

• To provide educators in formal and non-formal education with information and tools for working with young people in the prevention of and fight against GBV.
• To contribute to exposing and challenging attitutdes of tolerance towards GBV among young people
• To encourage and empower young people to resist GBV and to develop atttitudes of self-respect and self-value through their active participation in the proposed activities