The core theme of Abused no more (AnM) is developing innovative, youth-led, non formal methods to increase young people’s awareness of their legal rights particularly pertaining to discrimination, exclusion and abuse.
At present, school education in the law and basic rights that would allow young people to lead their lives equally in modern European societies is almost non-existent. However, research supports that when people are given the basic legal knowledge to deal with everyday situations not only they stand a better chance in society, but also avoid consuming public services unnecessarily (IARS, 2010). The question of what make us legally capable becomes particularly timely in the current financial climate where more and more young people are struggling to cope, and the demand for legal advice is ever increasing. For young people, a legal problem – let that be crime or debt related, domestic violence or employment – will have a bigger impact. Starting out in life presents young people with enormous new challenges. Marginalised youth are even less likely to receive help or want to engage with the system and what is available to the mainstream population.
However, communicating law related information through formal education or training to marginalised youth and those servicing them is not an easy task. International projects (e.g. Street Law, PLENET, Youth Empowerment Project) have shown that to achieve basic legal literacy among the public, including young people, it must be carried out organically and in a user-led fashion. Therefore, in Europe, a gap is identified in the field of training, education and youth that could be filled through the free dissemination of a youth-led programme for service providers and young people with the aim of increasing their legal capability.
The Abused no More (AnM) project will help to bridge this gap by focusing on increasing legal capacity in the areas of gender-based discrimination, exclusion and abuse against some of the most marginalised youth groups and in particular those who tend to be disadvantaged due to their gender and cultural differences (e.g. immigrants, refugees, descendants from immigrant families) and other social obstacles e.g. sexual orientation and ethnicity.
The Abused no more partnership is launching a call to collect inspirational projects in the youth discrimination field. We are looking for examples of good and promising practices of projects and activities aimed at tackling youth discrimination in different fields and through various methodologies.
Silva Mendes, Director for Youth and Sport at DG for Education and Culture, EC said: “Abuse no more”, introduces the notion of legal literacy in our formal education systems, in a rather innovative way to prevent marginalisation and social exclusion. My Voice – My rights gives us the opportunity to re-discover our legal systems and seek in there solutions but more importantly it makes us realize that individual rights are not merely a tool of preventing marginalisation but at the same time a reflection of our European values such as freedom, tolerance and non- discrimination. Re-exploring our roots and our common cultural heritage can be an effective answer to the multiple crises Europe is facing.”
Youth Advisory Group
As a user led organisation, IARS runs the Youth Advisory Group. YAB is a team of young volunteers aged 15 – 25 from different backgrounds and circumstances who are aware of the problems facing young people in today’s society and who are interested in an opportunity to do something positive about these issues. This body will be consulted at all stages of the project. This is an excellent opportunity for young people to get their voices heard and to address issues that are important for them.
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The AnM partnership has developed and designed the training material and resources delivered in each partner country and are freely available online on this page.
The Abused No More project is an opportunity for young people, professionals and organizations dealing with discrimination, legal literacy and abuse prevention to network in order to share information, practices, experiences and useful tools across Europe.
Join for free the Abused no More networkmembership includes benefit such as:
• Access to project newsletters
•Access to research reports, e- publications etc. developed within the project
• Priority tickets to accredited events and conference
• Possibility to get involved in our research activities
• Space for discussions, sharing of good practice and networking
In order to join the Abused no more network, please register providing us the following data: application form
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