ANTIGONE- Awareness raising on gender-based violence (GBV) through theatre-based school workshops is an Erasmus+ project which aims to use theatre as a tool to tackle the issue of the gender-based violence against women and girls which was particularly increased because of the covid19 pandemic.

The aim of the project is to empower secondary school teachers to organize theatre-based workshops in order to raise awareness related with GBV in physical presence but also online. It is based on participatory theatre techniques which allow the development of empathy and the active involvement of the participants in real life situations, in the context of a safe environment. In order to achieve this objective, the project has developed a handbook in relation with the organization of these workshops with all the necessary information that will allow the independent use of the method from the teachers to their schools.

On the basis of this handbook, it has developed training material and organize online courses which are going to be open to the participation of teachers through an open call. At least 300 teachers participated in these workshops. From them at least 200 came from the partner countries and other 100 from countries outside the partnership. These teachers, in order to complete successfully their training have implemented the method at least once (with physical presence or online) in a class of at least 15 students. In this way, a total of 4.500 students benefited from the method. An Impact Assessment Report has gathered data from the implementation and use them in order to support the upscaling and sustainability of the method.

At the end of the project, the quantity and the quality of theatre-based GBV prevention workshops (physical and online) was improved and the teachers acquired the skills to organize in an autonomous way these workshops on the basis of the needs of their students and also to respond in an adequate way in case they identify that the students have been involved in a GBV situation in any role (perpetrator, victim, bystander). They also improved their ability to use theatre as a tool also in situations where physical presence is not possible. The students have improved their ability to express themselves in a safe environment in issues related with GBV and to react in a proper way in case they are bystanders in a GBV situation. They also increased their awareness on the types of gender-based violence and on the expected replies from the part of the student.

The project in which Action Synergy participates as a partner is coordinated by DAH theatre in Serbia and was implemented by a consortium of theatre organisations, academic partners and partners expert in GBV that includes 8 partners from 7 countries all over Europe. More specifically, the consortium includes Fondazione Aida from Italy, Aeroploio Theatre from Greece, Association of Young Psychologists in Bulgaria, INSITE Drama from Hungary, the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and Realstars from Sweden

You can download here the methodology that was developed for the project in English and in Greek.

You can have access to the e-learning through this link and to the Impact Assessment Report here.