Projects

Every problem has a solution!

Through our projects we are trying to find solutions for the problems the LGBTQ community faces.

Tell Us

“Tell us” is the biggest project Colour Youth runs and has ever run. The basic goal of the Project “Tell us” is the gathering and recording of incidents of violence or/and discrimination based on the gender, gender expression or/and sexual orientation of the victim and the free legal or/and psychological support to the victims, by professionals.

“Tell us” had already started to being formed by the members of Colour Youth since 2013 and had always been a goal of the organization almost since its founding.

The campaign was launched by volunteers on the 1st of April 2014 and continues to this day.

It was funded from 29/10/2014 until 31/12/2015 by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the project “We are all citizens”, which is a part of the fund mechanism of EOX for Greece, known as EEA Grants. Funding administrator of the program is Bodossaki Institute.

From the 1st of January 2016 until today it has been funded by the Open Society Foundations.

In charge of the Project during its voluntarily period was Maria Zeimpeoglou

In charge of the recordings since 1/7/2016 was Konstantinos (Gus) Pantikiou.

Since 29/10/2014 head of the Project is Thanasis Theofilopoulos.

Transcare: Improving access to healthcare for transgender individuals/Βελτίωση της πρόσβασης των τρανς ατόμων στις υπηρεσίες υγείας

Το έργο Transcare: Improving access to healthcare for transgender individuals/Βελτίωση της πρόσβασης των τρανς ατόμων στις υπηρεσίες υγείας με αριθμό έργου 881952, αποτελεί ένα διετές πρόγραμμα συγχρηματοδοτούμενο στο πλαίσιο του Ευρωπαϊκού Προγράμματος Δικαιώματα, Ισότητα και Ιθαγένεια (2014 – 2020) με κεντρικό στόχο την ενημέρωση, ευαισθητοποίηση και εκπαίδευση του ιατρονοσηλευτικού προσωπικού για την ασφαλή και χωρίς διακρίσεις πρόσβαση και παροχή υπηρεσιών υγείας στα τρανς άτομα. Συντονιστής της κοινοπραξίας και της υλοποίησης του έργου είναι το ΠΜΣ «Παγκόσμια Υγεία – Ιατρική των Καταστροφών», Ιατρική Αθηνών, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών (ΕΚΠΑ). Η κοινοπραξία του προγράμματος αποτελείται από το Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης – Κλινική Κοινωνικής και Οικογενειακής Ιατρικής, τη Colour Youth – Κοινότητα LGBTQ Νέων Αθήνας, τη Θετική Φωνή – Red Umbrella Athens, το Orlando LGBT+, τον Ιατρικό Σύλλογο Αθηνών, την Ελληνική Επιτροπή Διεθνών Σχέσεων Φοιτητών Ιατρικής – HelMSIC, το ΙΕΚ ΑΚΜΗ και τη ReadLab – Research Innovation & Development Lab.

IDEAS – Inclusive Digital Educational Anti-Discrimination Alternatives

Over a two year period, six partner organizations from the Czech Republic, Croatia, Iceland, Serbia and Greece will conceptualize and record 35 podcasts with the aim of disseminating feminist knowledge.

The project’s main goal is to issue this knowledge with an accessible and empowering way to a wide range of women and femininities, irrespective of their other intersectional identities (such as national and cultural identity, sexual orientation, disability).

Through the podcasts, the listeners will be able to learn about the history of the women’s movement, feminist theories, the theory of social reproduction and the connection between feminist and ecological struggles. Also, they will have an opportunity to gain insights into the women’s labor rights, the experiences of Roma women, and the lives of migrant women. The podcasts will utilize various innovative methods in order to help the listeners gain a better understanding of the above-mentioned topics.

Empowerment Groups for LGBTQ+ people

Since 2012 Colour Youth runs empowerment groups for LGBTQ+ people. The aim of the groups is to explore different identities as they are experienced by each person and to share experiences and emotions. Τhe groups' ultimate goal is our personal empowerment through interacting and coexisting in a safe space.

Empowerment Groups:

  • Sexual Orientation Group for non-straight people (lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, pansexual, queer, or other)
  • Gender Identity Group for non-cisgender people (trans men, trans women, non binary, genderqueer, questioning and other).

Since the aim of the groups is to explore identities on an experiential level, it is a prerequisite for participating in the groups that issues around sexual orientation or gender identity, respectively, are personally relevant to each person.

Each person can take part in both groups and for as many meetings as they wish. Participation in the groups is free.

Get informed and vote

Η καμπάνια «Ενημερώσου και Ψήφισε» διοργανώνεται από την Colour Youth – Κοινότητα LGBTQ Νέων Αθήνας με αφορμή τις ευρωεκλογές του Μαΐου 2019 και έχει την υποστήριξη των οργανώσεων Athens Pride και Ομοφυλοφιλική και Λεσβιακή Κοινότητα Ελλάδας – ΟΛΚΕ. Είναι κομματικά ουδέτερη, και δεν θα στηρίξει κανένα πολιτικό κόμμα/σχήμα. Συγκεκριμένα οι στόχοι της καμπάνιας είναι οι εξής:

1. Η κινητοποίηση της LGBTQI νεολαίας, αλλά και της ευρύτερης κοινότητας, προκειμένου να συμμετέχουν στην εκλογική διαδικασία του Μαΐου, ενημερώνοντας τους ταυτόχρονα για τους κινδύνους που ενέχει η απόφασή τους να απέχουν.

2. Η δέσμευση όσο περισσότερων υποψήφιων ευρωβουλευτών γίνεται, ότι θα προασπίσουν τα ζητήματα της LGBTΙ κοινότητας από την μελλοντική θέση τους στο Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο.

3. Η ενημέρωση της LGBTQI νεολαίας, αλλά και της ευρύτερης κοινότητας, για τους υποψήφιους ευρωβουλευτές που έχουν πάρει ανοιχτά θέση υπέρ της, ώστε να την ημέρα των εκλογών να μπορούν να ψηφίσουν υπεύθυνα.

School Climate Survey

The School Climate Survey is a research project run by Colour Youth from March to July 2017. As a youth association, Colour Youth has often been confronted with incidents of violence and discrimination in the school environment, something also testified by the results of the “Tell Us” project. The goal of this survey was to research and define the quality of the school climate as it is perceived by their LGBTQ students. The reason for this was the complete lack of data on the experience of LGBTQ students in Greek schools.

The survey tool was a product of translation and adaptation to the Greek context of the questionnaire used by GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network).

When adapting the questionnaire, Colour Youth collaborated with Rainbow School. The doctoral student team of mr Panos Kordoutis, professor of Psychology at Panteion University, provided scientific advice.

The project was carried out voluntarily by members of Colour Youth. The project group was made up of scientists and students of both social sciences and STEM, such as psychology, statistics, etc.

Transcending Youth – Supporting Trans Youth

Transcending Youth is a service of Colour Youth that started in February 2018 and is aimed at young trans and non-cis people.

Through Transcending Youth our aim is to:

  • Inform trans youth about the procedures for legal gender recognition and medical transition.
  • Support trans youth by accompanying them to all relevant services for legal gender recognition and medical transition procedures.
  • Empower trans youth and help them develop their skills through training
  • Create a safe space, in which, all of us young trans people, can meet up, get to know each other and discuss issues that affect us.
  • Inform and educate staff, members and volunteers of organisations that offer health-related services, on issues affecting trans people.
  • Increase the visibility of trans youth and raise awareness on issues that affect us.

For the period February-July 2018, Transcending Youth was implemented with the support of Vodafone Foundation, as part of the program World of Difference.

From August 2018 the services of Transcending Youth are offered on a voluntary basis.

E.T.HO.S

The overall objective of the E.T.Ho.S project is to educate and raise awareness among journalists and media students about the phenomenon of homophobia, transphobia and biphobia in the media and in particular about the direct or indirect (re)production of harmful stereotypes against LGBT+ people.

For the achievement of this aim, four types of action have been planned:

·Development of a LGBT+ Media Reporting Guide for media professionals and students.
● Training of media professionals and students in the three participating countries: 12 (3×4) trainings for media professionals (20-25 participants per training) and 12 (3×4) trainings for media students (20-25 participants per training).
· Advocacy and lobbying on LGBT+ rights and the elimination of discrimination against them.
· Raising on Homophobic, Transphobic and Biphobic (HTB) Media discourse.

Come Forward

Το “Come Forward: Ενδυνάμωση και υποστήριξη θυμάτων εγκλημάτων μίσους κατά ΛΟΑΤΚΙ+ ανθρώπων” είναι ένα διευρωπαϊκό project στο οποίο συμμετέχουν οργανώσεις από 11 χώρες. Το project, διάρκειας 24 μηνών, ξεκίνησε τον Δεκέμβριο του 2016 και έχει στόχο να καταπιαστεί με το ζήτημα των εγκλημάτων μίσους κατά ΛΟΑΤ ανθρώπων μέσω διαφόρων στόχων, όπως η αύξηση των κέντρων καταγραφής τέτοιων περιστατικών μέσα από την ενδυνάμωση της κοινωνίας των πολιτών και των κρατικών φορέων σε τοπικό και εθνικό επίπεδο, η βελτίωση της πρόσβασης σε εξειδικευμένη υποστήριξη μέσω της ενδυνάμωσης των φορέων που παρέχουν τέτοιες υπηρεσίες, ο διαμοιρασμός καλών πρακτικών, η ενδυνάμωση των διεθνών συνεργασιών και η ενδυνάμωση των ίδιων των θυμάτων.

Την υλοποίηση του project στην Ελλάδα έχει αναλάβει η Colour Youth και η Praksis με την υποστήριξη του Συνηγόρου του Πολίτη.

Υπεύθυνος του Έργου εκ μέρους της Colour Youth είναι ο Θανάσης Θεοφιλόπουλος.

Τhe project is co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme of the European Union.

Support, accompanying and legal services to hate crime victims.

Support, accompanying and legal services to hate crime victims was a project run by the Hellenic League for Human Rights during the years 2014-2016 in cooperation with Colour Youth, the Greek Council for Refugees, the Greek Forum of Refugees, METAdrasi, Doctors of the World and Day Center BABEL.

Through this program, the participating organizations provided to hate crime victims legal aid/escort , primary medical care, psychosocial support and legal representation.

Within this project, Colour Youth took over the accompanying services and incident recording services against LGBTQ individuals.

The project was funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the project “We are all citizens”, which is a part of the fund mechanism of EOX for Greece, known as EEA Grants. Funding administrator of the program is Bodossaki Institute.

In charge of the recordings and the accompanying services on behalf of Colour Youth was Konstantinos (Gus) Pantikiou.

Share It

The “Share It” forum was an internet campaign launched by Colour Youth in 2014 and 2015.

This was a forum, in which parents of LGBT individuals could share their stories and concerns with other parents with similar experiences.

The forum was divided into thematic categories while at the same time there was a section full of useful material, like psychologists' and psychiatrists' papers, lists of related movies, articles and books, and also texts with interviews of Colour Youth members' parents sharing their experiences.

“Share It” ceased operation in the second half of 2015.

The campaign was launched voluntarily by Colour Youth members.

Vote For Your Rights

Vote For Your Rights was a project launched by Colour Youth in cooperation with Athens Pride in 2014, prompted by the Euro elections.
The goals of the program were:

  1. The empowerment of LGBTQ voters and especially the young ones, in order to take responsible decisions when voting, taking LGBTQ rights under consideration during the party or representative selection.
  2. Monitoring the opinions of the parties and point out candidates’ homophobic and transphobic speech, while also raise the candidates’ awareness.
  3. Raising awareness of human rights so that voters outside of the LGBTQ community take them into account when voting.

Within the framework of the project the first research of the LGBTQ community electoral trends also took place in cooperation with a specialized analyst.

The project was funded by Open Society Foundations.

Head of the Project was Elena Diamantopoulou.