Equality

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Equality Human Rights Training for Youth
Workers Séamus Kealey Training Manager
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• Learning Objectives
• Have gained an understanding of how prejudice,
  discrimination and harassment affect young people
  and their life chances
• Be more confident to challenge prejudice and
  discrimination
• Be aware how building equality and human rights
  principles into your service can benefit all
  young people and improve the quality of your
  service

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Introductions What did you want to be?
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Working Principles
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• Working Principles
• Confidentiality Trust
• Language Terminology
• Working Together
• Understanding our Responsibilities
• Respect

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Youth Work Values and Principles

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Person centredVoluntary ParticipationInformal
EducationInformal and FriendlyTwo way
relationshipOpportunity to ParticipateSocial
and Personal DevelopmentCitizenshipOpen to all
young people

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Defining Equality and Diversity

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What is equality?

• Its not the Politically Correct brigade
• Its not about giving special preference /
  treatment to or promoting minority groups
• Its not just an issue for left-wingers and
  minority groups
• Its not about making us all the same or just
  about respecting diversity
• Its not just about the 6 protected strands
• EQUALITY IS FOR EVERYONE

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Arguments against?

• Its just political correctness gone mad
• What people do in the privacy of their own
  bedrooms is no business of mine
• Why are some groups getting special treatment?
• Equality and Diversity doesnt apply to me I
  dont deal with young people
• You cant tell me what to think!
• But I treat everybody the same anyway

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Equality

• Ensuring that people have equality of opportunity
  regardless of things such as their ethnic or
  community background, gender or sexual
  orientation, or disability.
• However, it is important to note that equality is
  more than just treating everyone the same -
  treating everyone the same is not the same as
  treating everyone fairly!
• It is about ensuring that we do not directly or
  indirectly exclude people, and that we positively
  seek ways of including those who might otherwise
  feel excluded.

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Diversity

• Diversity encourages respect for and expression
  of the range of identities experiences
  represented by the youth of Scotland, and those
  who work with them in the youth work sector.
• It is about seeing difference as something that
  can enrich us, thus appreciating the value of
  different experiences, cultures, identities and
  perspectives.

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Equality Diversity are Inter-related
Simple Equality arguments can support a concept
of separation that ignores the long-term
necessity to forge good relations and in an
integrated society Diversity arguments can be
and have been used to cover up inequality
unfair treatment.
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• Youth Work plays a key role in delivering the
  principles outlined in the UN Convention on the
  Rights of the Child, particularly Article 12, the
  right of the young person to voice their opinion,
  have their views listened to and be taken
  seriously. By engaging young people in social
  activism, youth work builds citizenship, respect
  for human rights and a sense of mutual
  responsibility.
• Youth Link Statement on Youth Work

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Diversity Top Trumps
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(No Transcript)
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Lets De-jargon!
Cross-strand Relating to more than one equality
strand or group, and commonly in talking about
issues relevant to all the equality
strands Cross-cutting Issues such as class,
poverty, deprivation, mental health, poor access
(education, training, work) and opportunities,
homelessness or poor housing, rural and remote
Multiple disadvantage Cross-strand and
(usually) cross-cutting issues increase exposure
to/can multiply the impacts
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Attitudes to Difference
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Inclusion is a relative term
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Human Rights
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Equality a human right?

• Equality is a fundamental human right
• Human rights goes further than equality
• Sets minimum standards of treatment
• Everyone treated equally well, not just equally
• Human rights framework helps find the balance on
  equality (can use the laws together)

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Human Rights

• They belong to everyone, all of the time not
  only certain groups at certain times
• They can not be given to us, only claimed or
  fulfilled
• They cannot be taken away from us, only
  claimed or fulfilled
• They are how services or youth organisations
  must treat all young people as human beings
• Human rights offer a more ambitious vision of
  equality beyond ant-discrimination and can help
  people in situations where people are being
  treated unfairly
• They give expression to a set of core principles
  FREDA

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(No Transcript)
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Case Study Packs
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(No Transcript)
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We've all heard the old saying that "Sticks and
stones will break your bones but names will never
hurt you". However, when you start branding or
labeling a whole race of people or community
based on generalities you find yourself getting
into some trouble. When society as a whole starts
accepting this as the norm and starts believing
that that's just how things are, the water tends
to get murky Unknown
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Allports scale created in 1954 by psychologist
Gordon Allport is a measure of the manifestation
of prejudice in a society.
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Allports Scale of Prejudice is measured from 1
5. Scale 1, Antilocution Antilocution means a
majority group freely make jokes about a minority
group. Speech is in terms of negative stereotypes
and negative images. This is also called hate
speech. It is commonly seen as harmless by the
majority. Antilocution itself may not be harmful,
but it sets the stage for more severe outlets for
prejudice. Examples are jokes about various
ethnic groups and so forth. Scale 2, Avoidance
People in a minority group are actively avoided
by members of the majority group. No direct harm
may be intended, but harm is done through
isolation. Scale 3, Discrimination Minority
group is discriminated against by the denying of
opportunities and services and thus, putting
prejudice into action. Behaviors have the
specific goal of harming the minority group by
preventing them from achieving goals, achieving
education, or jobs. The majority group is
actively trying to harm the minority.
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Scale 4 Physical Attack The majority group
vandalize minority group materially they burn
property and carry out violent attacks on
individuals or groups. Physical harm is done to
members of the minority group. Examples include
lynchings of blacks, pogroms against Jews in
Europe, tarring and feathering of Mormons in the
1800s. Scale 5 Extermination The majority group
seeks extermination of the minority group through
genocide. They attempt to liquidate the entire
group of people (Native American populations,
"Final Solution of Jewish Problem," "Ethnic
Cleansing" in Bosnia, and so forth).
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• Personal Action Planning
• As an Individual?
• As a Service?
• One Policy Change?
• With Young People?

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Any Questions?
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Thank you! training_at_lgbtyouth.org.uk