Gender 101 – Developing innovative tools about Gender Diversity for Parents and Adult Educators

<< Background >>In a 2021 worldwide poll by the World Economic Forum (2021¹), 2% of respondents from 27 nations classified as transgender, non-binary/non-conforming/gender-fluid, or in another way. In Germany and Sweden, around 3% of respondents answered that they identified themselves as other than male and female, highlighting that there is an increasing number of younger people who describe their gender as other than male and female. This study, amongst others, shows that whilst there is a growing awareness and understanding of the needs of people within the LGBT+ community, there is still a strong need to inform different groups of people and ensure that parents who have gender diverse children and learners who encounter gender diverse youngstersare equipped with the right knowledge and tools to promote an inclusive and equal environment which stems away from gender definition or classification. In all the Partner countries it has been determined that there is a lack of resources in this regard, particularly expert training, and digital resources that can be used to promote and foster inclusive and understanding of gender diverse youngsters.¹ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/lgbt-gender-identity-ipsos-2021-survey/<< Objectives >>The following were the objectives and expected results of this project:OBJ 1. Improved access to knowledge about gender-diverse youths:By developing effective educational tools for parents and educators supporting their daily activities and their channels of communication, with the goal to support Gender Diverse Youth, allowing the project to meet the main selected priority, namely, inclusion and diversity in all fields of education, training, youth and sports.OBJ 2. Parents and educators to become main agents of social changeThrough the development of the Parent Learning Masterclasses, as well as the digital tool which helped to ensure well-being both for parents and educators themselves, but more importantly for their children and/or young learners, allowing the project to meet one of the selected priorities, namely, improving the availability of high-quality learning opportunities for adults.OBJ 3. The creation of an Open Access digital toolthrough the creation of an open-access digital tool, a key resource in disseminating knowledge andinformation during the project term but will also be a crucial tool in ensuring a strong legacy of this project after the project's lifetime, available openly.<< Implementation >>The project researched, designed, implemented, tested, and disseminated innovative effective educational tools, to able to support parents and adult educators in developing their daily activities and their channels of communication with the goal to support gender diverse youth. This project included 4 intellectual outputs, creating a series of parent learning master-classes for parents, train the trainers for adult educators, research based creation of a guidebook for trainers and a digital tool in the form of a free, online, Q&A with frequently asked questions on gender diversity for parents and adult trainers to continue to benefit from even after the project end.<< Results >>The following were the main results of this project: 1. Development of Masterclass for parents created out the research and organisation of focus groups with parents and educators - this masterclass includes a series of videos which are openly available to the public;2. Training of Trainers who can now utilise the content created and train other trainers to disseminate the knowledge;3. Guidebook for Trainers - the guidebook, available online for free is available to accompany the videos created in sharing the knowledge;4. Digital Tool - a series of Q&As of the most frequently asked questions about gender diversity, available online for free.