Toolkit for Involving Young Men in Ending Violence against Young Women

In 2006, the Rogers Park Young Women's Action Team (YWAT) in Chicago launched a campaign to engage young men as allies in addressing violence against girls.

The Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team (YWAT) grew out of the efforts of young women who expressed concern about the rampant street violence and harassment in their neighbourhood in 2003.  This group of young women between the ages of 12-22 from the Rogers Park Community is committed to researching issues of violence against women and girls, raising awareness of the problem, and working to reduce its prevalence and impact.

The YWAT, a youth-led and adult-supported social change project, conducted a participatory action research project that included the creation of a film called Real Talk (in collaboration with Beyondmedia Education), survey research, and a set of popular education workshops. In addition, the YWAT organized and implemented a two-day train the trainer workshop for fifteen young men ages 14-22 in November 2007.

YWAT has compiled all of its research, resources, curriculum units, and lessons learned into a comprehensive toolkit. The toolkit called Where Our Boys At: Involving Young Men in Gender Violence Prevention will help other organizations and youth-led groups to create their own efforts in their local communities.

This toolkit is the final product of their work. We hope that it is useful to those who want to involve young men in addressing violence against girls and young women.

You can find the Toolkit and supporting research via their website here. 

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