Centre for Social Studies (CES) integrates European consortium to analyse gender diversity in childhood

In the month that we celebrate World Bullying Day, the DaC project - Diversity and Childhood: Transforming Attitudes towards Gender Diversity in Childhood in the European Context at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra. The project aims to prevent and combat discrimination and violence experienced by LGBTQI + children and adolescents.

Over the next two years, the first project to make an in-depth diagnosis of discrimination situations affecting LGBTQI + children in Portugal will simultaneously propose a training package and pedagogical resources to be implemented at European level in the areas of school, health, family, media and public space.

At a time when the "Portugal + Igual" programme is being developed, as part of the National Strategy for Equality and Non-Discrimination 2018-2030 approved by the Portuguese government - which identifies equality and non-discrimination as a condition for building a sustainable future for the country - this research project is therefore of great importance for achieving these goals.

Funded by the European Commission until 2021, it is a European research consortium involving 9 countries, with a total budget of €660,000, which provides for the development of a series of participatory action research measures; including training sessions for education and health professionals, journalists, law enforcement officials, social workers and families, and the production of teaching materials.

In this sense, CES (with a specific budget of €69,000) joins the University of Girona (coordinating institution), the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and the following institutions in support of LGBTI people Çavaria (Bélgica), Hátter Society (Hungary), KMOP (Greece), Lambda Warszawa (Poland), Nacional LGBT Rights Organisation - LGL (Lithuania) and Zagreb Pride (Croatia).

In Portugal, the research team is coordinated by Ana Cristina Santos (principal investigator), Mafalda Santos and Alexandra Santos, with the support of the Ministry of Education and exaequo, the LGBTI youth association.

^{Translation by Diana Taborda}