Stance - Against Homophobic Bullying

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World Out Games, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 2009

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s someone with an academic/professional interest in sexualities and/or LGBT issues, we wondered if you could please help us with some research that we are currently conducting. In the first national survey of its kind, the Equality Challenge Unit has commissioned research into the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) staff and students in higher education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The results from this survey will be important because they will help the ECU to understand what issues, if any, adversely affect the career progress and experiences of LGBT staff and students in higher education. The findings will be used to identify issues that need to be addressed by the sector and will be published on the ECU website.

We are currently running an online survey http://www.equalsurvey.co.uk/ <https://outlook.leeds.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://outlook.leeds.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://outlook.leeds.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://outlook.leeds.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.equalsurvey.co.uk/> for LGBT staff and students in higher education. We would be grateful if you could please take the time to fill in the survey, if you are eligible, and/or forward this email onto any LGBT colleagues (academic and support staff), students, or friends who work in HE. The survey will be available to complete until 14th November 2008. All responses will be treated in the strictest of confidence and no information given as an individual will be released by the ECU.

Thanks for your time,

Nichola Wood and Gill Valentine

Dear colleagues,

As a part of the EU-funded project aVataR@school teams from the UK, Italy, Germany, Spain and Romania have been developing an internet-based virtual three-dimensional environment for pupils in schools throughout Europe where they can cooperatively practice to deal with school bullying and victimisation. Using tools developed from this project, it is possible for pupils to interact and exchange ideas through virtual role-plays with other pupils in other parts of Europe.

In the time between October and December 2008 we will hold 20 role plays for which we search up to 40 schools from across Europe that are interested in participating in our virtual role plays.

The role plays will be moderated by the experts from the aVataR@school project. The roles of the bullies, victims, bystanders, teachers and mediators will be played by pupils of the participating schools. Apart from detailed instructions on how to access and use the virtual environment created in the aVataR@school project each school will be provided with role play scenarios and role instructions for each of the pupils participating in the role play.

Participation at our virtual role play sessions is limited to a group of up to 40 schools from throughout Europe on a first-come, first-serve basis. The expected time involvement for participating schools will be around 6-8 hours (2-3 hours for the virtual role play itself and around 4-5 hours of preparation and organisation).

For more information about the aVataR@school project please see our website: www.avataratschool.eu  

If your school is interested in participating in one of our virtual role plays please contact

north_west@avataratschool.eu
Contact for schools in United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgique, Luxembourg, Iceland

north_east@avataratschool.eu
Contact for schools in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Finland

sud_west@avataratschool.eu
Contact for schools in Spain, France, Portugal, Andorra

sud_east@avataratschool.eu
Contact for schools in Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Croatia,  Slovenia, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, SanMarino, Serbia, Turkey

east@avataratschool.eu
Contact for schools in Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia

We`d be happy if you could forward this information to colleagues, schools, teachers and other who could be interested in participating in our virtual role plays.

Best wishes, 

The aVataR@school team

CINECA (Italy / project coordination)
Actionwork (United Kingdom)
Associazione Equilibrio (Italy)
Centre of Mediation of Sant Pere de Ribes Municipality (Spain)
Project Wolf (Romania)

Judy Shepard, executive director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, released the following statement as she marks the tenth year since his death on October 12th 1998...   more »