| Family Matters |
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Supporting families to prevent violence against gay and lesbian youth During March Bristol hosted the two day UK meeting of all the partners involved in the Daphne Project, Family Matters. FFLAG was joined by Agedo (Italy) and Ampgil (Spain) for the meeting. The project has been running for less than three months but in that time much progress has been made. Agedo is currently working on a 50 minute video featuring two case studies of parents of LGB children at the time when the children ‘come out.’ The video will also feature two discussion groups with parents. Agedo is also carrying out research with families to identify the needs of parents of LGB children and to allow them to share their experiences. A questionnaire is being distributed and it is hoped that 300 completed forms will be returned. In addition 50 in depth interviews will be carried out with families. The questionnaire and interview questions will be translated into other languages so that they can be used in other countries. Ampgil has the task of collating information around public policies relating to LGB young people and their families. As there appear to be no such policies in Spain the research has been expanded to cover all of Europe. Ampgil will also produce educational material for families and for use by teachers in schools and universities. This material will be based on existing good practice across Europe. FFLAG’s role in the project has been to map existing provision for parents of LGB children in the voluntary and community sector. Sarah Hayes has been employed by FFLAG to do this research. The work is currently in progress but initial findings are that apart from the three partner organisations there is very little other support in Europe and the groups that do exist are very poorly funded. When the research is complete the report and accompanying maps will be available on the FFLAG website. The other task for FFLAG is to produce a website for the project. This site will be in the three languages and contain information for parents, results of the research and the material collected by the project. During the meeting the partners talked about the ‘ideal’ website and all the things they would like to see included. The list was very long but as the project has a limited budget it may not all be possible. The EU are keen to see a wide European base to the Family Matters project so parents’ organisations from across Europe will be given the opportunity to have a page within the website, in their own language, giving information about their work and contact details for their group. It is hoped that as a result of the project new parents’ groups will develop in countries which currently do not have them (particularly Eastern Europe) and by using the good practice and resources collated by the project they will be supported in their work. In order to share the work of the Family Matters project there will be three conferences, one in each of the partner countries, during the summer of 2008. These will see the publication of the research, the educational material and the launch of the website. The conferences will be an opportunity for parents’ groups from across Europe to come together to strengthen the network and re-launch EuroFlag |