The city of Munich, Germany was the location of our staff training on gender-sensitive youth work from 17-21 June 2019. Project partners in the "Towards more Gender-Sensitivity in Youth Work" project brought along colleagues to discuss and experience the topic of gender-sensitivity and the implications it has for youth work.
Whereas the first day of the training consisted of a "warm-up", getting to know eachother and an introduction to www.meintestgelände.de, a gender magazine by young people by Robert Lejeune, the second day way jam-packed with new perspectives and views on the topic of gender thanks to the conference organised by BAG EJSA (more info here in German). External experts included, among others, representatives of the local council Gabriele Nuß (Gleichstellungsstelle, office for equal opportunities City of Munich), as well as our project consortium member BAG EJSA's own youth work experts Lissi Meßner (Fortbildungsreferentin, training officer EJSA Bavaria) and Michael Schirmer (Jungenarbeit, Working with Boys, EJSA office Baden-Württemberg).
From Wednesday on the training became a lot more intimate, with the project partners and their colleagues now able to share their expertise in working gender-sensitively with young people. The workshops, show casing different approaches to gender-sensitive youth work, were well received by the whole group and sparked many an idea for their own work in the project partners.
A project visit at Sichere Wies'n brought together Munich's famous Octoberfest beer fest and the topic of gender. The project organises a safe space for women and girls in vulnerable situations at the Octoberfest and aims to make the Octoberfest a fun experience for all. Project leader Krisitina Gottlöber presented the inspiring concept to the project partners who enjoyed the controversial discussion on safety of girls and women at such events and had examples from music festivals and village fairs in their home countries to share.
A little time to explore Munich, its beautiful English Garden and its Catholic Fronleichnam procession as well as lovely mild evenings spent in the city's renown beer gardens rounded off the training.
Check out our photos of the training on Facebook!