NAWO Young Women’s Alliance – Take Action for the #16Days: The Phoenix Pledge
By NAWO Young Women’s Alliance
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Context
The Phoenix Pledge is a project centred around the song, Phoenix (by Amelia Underwood-King), in which different communities are hosting conversations about gender-based violence and then pledging to take action based on those conversations. This includes school, university, workplace, faith and local communities, and the idea is for each community to take action to address its particular needs and issues.
Having consulted many members of NAWO YWA (Young Women’s Alliance), it became apparent that the young members were keen to take part in this project but felt ill-equipped to go out into their respective communities and host their own conversations.
Therefore, we have decided to use the 16 Days as a learning opportunity to help individuals develop their knowledge and advocacy skills regarding the issue of gender based violence and to take individual action in preparation for more outward focused efforts and advocacy in the new year.
As such, we have created a programme of events, activities and materials that we hope will help empower individuals, both young and more experienced, over the course of the 16 Days. We also hope to provide a platform for young activists to explore the issue and to express what they feel the most pressing concerns are to those with more experience.
Aims
- To raise awareness of different forms of gender-based violence;
- To equip participants with the knowledge, skills and confidence to host conversations within their own communities;
- To spotlight youth perspectives on the issue and give them a platform to engage with more experienced advocates.
Events
A Youth-Led Conversation
24th Nov at 7pm GMT
We will start our 16 Days programme with an online youth-led conversation about gender-based violence. For this event, we will be joined by a panel of young activists and experts who will share their expertise, in areas such as online gender-based violence, spiking and racialised gender-based violence, and help lead a conversation amongst participants.
The main aims of this event are to raise awareness and begin exploring how these different forms of gender-based violence sit within the wider issue of gender inequality, as well as to provide a platform for young activists to express to more experienced women’s rights advocates what they feel the priorities should be.
Mitigating Gender-Based Violence Against Widows
6th Dec at 7pm GMT
This joint event with Widows for Peace through Democracy will take the form of a panel discussion and meaningful conversation, and it will explore the issue of gender-based violence as it pertains to widows.
Taking the Action Forward Session
12th Dec at 7pm GMT
Our final session will act as a culmination of the fortnight’s activities and will be a chance for participants to reflect on what they have learned and how best to take action forward. This session will include learning how to host conversations that are both constructive and inclusive, as well as an exploration of alternative means of dialogue and disrupting harmful practices within the activist space. We hope that all participants who attend our first session will take part in our programme of activities and meet in this final session to devise an action plan for moving forward.
Social Media
We plan to use social media to focus on education and sharing best practice, with a particular focus on covering diverse issues and sharing diverse voices. Therefore, each day will explore a different aspect of gender-based violence (different types of GBV and looking at GBV through different lenses) by sharing information and resources whilst spotlighting existing initiatives and activists.
We’d love for people to share their thoughts, learnings and ideas with us on social media, throughout the 16 Days, by tagging @NawoUK and @Phoenix_Pledge or using the hashtag #phoenixpledge
Activities
We have devised a list of 16 actions that can be taken each day to help participants broaden their knowledge and begin to reflect on the role their communities play in perpetuating or enabling different types of gender-based violence.
These range from awareness raising activities to introspective learning-based activities, and will be shared on social media each day.
Please join us to explore, exchange and expand ideas!
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