CHANCE or "C4C" will be a youth-led project that will bring together a cross-sector, strategic partnership of 6 familiar and not so familiar with Erasmus organisations to develop innovative, community-led, educational methods and tools to help address the root causes that lead to gender-based violence (GBV) and gender discrimination as they impact on young people.

In our modern European societies, GBV continues to be a widespread phenomenon impacting on young peoples' lives regardless of their religion, ethnicity, socio-economic status or level of education. There is also evidence to suggest that youth workers need more capacity to deal with this persistent phenomenon at the EU level, putting emphasis on supporting marginalized groups of girls and young women as they tend to be more exposed to GBV. The project results will help deliver the Europe 2020 Strategy and EU gender equality policies.

HORIZONTAL: SOCIAL INCLUSION

We believe that C2C addresses multiple horizontal and sectoral priorities including but not limited to Social Inclusion. GBV and gender discrimination are a reality for many young women and girls who are excluded and marginalised, limiting their potential to participate equally in life and civic society.

This may include areas such as education, employment and progression, social life and health provision. CHANCE aims to address the root causes that lead to these phenomena for young people, helping in this way to the delivery of the social inclusion objectives of the new Youth Strategy and Erasmus+. CHANCE also aims to increase young people's awareness of their rights and responsibilities particularly pertaining to GBV, discrimination, exclusion and abuse. This core theme was developed in line with the Erasmus + Programme, having considered carefully the findings of the EU Youth Report. While the target beneficiary group of CHANCE is wide (increasing potential impact), it also has a specific focus on minority ethnic women, identified as the most vulnerable group in the project's context. C4C puts strong focus on the involvement of young people with fewer opportunities, both as ultimate project beneficiaries and as participants in the development and oversight of the project. This is because we have evidence to believe that young women from minority ethnic groups, refugee and migrant communities as well as low socio-economic backgrounds are more exposed to GBV and gender discrimination.

YOUTH: Promoting engaging, connecting and empowering young people As a youth-led project, CHANCE will directly empower young people in the participating countries to get involved in the project through volunteering and social action. The young people will be empowered to deliver project management (e.g. quality control) and project tasks. We will use the values of restorative justice (i.e. power-sharing, equality and fairness) to empower them to drive the project. While doing so, C4C will create and pilot an innovative model and related tools for youth workers empowering them to better connect and support their young people in their work in reducing GBV.

CHANCE will also make use of a pedagogy of production approach particularly suitable to involve young people in reflecting activities and in oder to empower them to challenge stereotyped attitudes and behaviours regarding gender relationships through the development of critical thinking and other skills.

YOUTH: Promoting quality, innovation and recognition of youth work C4C has been developed to deliver Erasmus' strategic partnership objectives of professionalising youth workers and building their competences, as well as setting quality standards. To this end it will develop and pilot (a) "GBV Youth Workers' Competence Framework" and self-assessment e-tool (b) two accredited e-courses (c) a scientific publication.

We have evidence to believe that by increasing the capacity of youth workers, we can minimise the gap in youth learning in relation to preventative GBV related practices. The aforementioned 3 innovative education material on restorative justice and media based tools will be translated in all participating languages and be accredited. They will enhance the quality of youth work and piloted in the participating countries. They will also be made available to all EU members states via the project's website and planned dissemination actions.

Lastly, the project aims to build relationships among organisations servicing youth in the participating countries and across Europe, while providing key workers of the participating organisations with new skills and knowledge so that they can deliver the project's objectives and transfer them to others.

Through its multipliers, C4C will bring together various stakeholders in the youth field from different member states to support the project's collaborative development and exchange of innovative methods, tools and practices, focusing on GBV as this impacts on young people and marginalised groups.