Sunday 13 April 2014

Scotland Activist Training with UK Feminista

Well hello there lovely readers!

Last week I attended Scotland Activist Training in Glasgow with UK Feminista, an organisation that encourages and supports activism in the field of gender equality.

I had an amazing time and met the best people, and I now feel totally fired up and ready to campaign!! The day was split into two "breakout" sessions (a bit like mini-seminars) and an "open space" session, where participants can set the agenda.

The first breakout session I attended was run by Claire Black, columnist and writer for The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday, who talked about how to reach the right people within a newspaper and get coverage for your campaign or issue. We discussed the need to target the right publication as well as journalist - for example, writing to The Sun asking for coverage for your Lose the Lads Mags flashmob is not going to get you very far!! Writing to The Guardian, however...
We also talked about the DIY approach: blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc - and how today's newspapers tend to "follow" stories rather than lead them. This means that while, in days gone by, no newspaper coverage for your story meant, well, exactly that - today, if you can create enough buzz about your campaign via social media, then the newspapers are likely to come to you. Claire was a wonderful, open and inspiring speaker, and we all liked that she allowed us to influence the discussion so we could get from it what was important to us. After Claire had led the discussion for a while, we split into groups to plan a "pretend" campaign addressing the issue of the shocking lack of female statues in Edinburgh - there are only 2, meaning that there are the same number of lady statues as there are dog statues in the entire Scottish capital! Truth be told, we planned our pretend campaign so successfully there was even talk of turning the campaign into a reality! So don't be surprised if you start seeing brassieres on statues around Edinburgh ;)
Search #BrasOn on twitter or have a look at some of the existing literature on the topic here and here.

The afternoon breakout session was led by Liz from Zero Tolerance. This was particularly interesting for me because it looked at ways to talk about gender stereotyping with children and young people, which is something I try to do in my job. Liz and her colleagues have been working on a series of activities to broach these subjects with under 18s, and she wanted to try out some of the activities on us and get some feedback. While I thought these activities were good, they were also largely aimed at secondary aged children, and were not really appropriate for the ages of children I work with. That said, Liz's second activity, Numbered Jenga, was really interesting! In Liz's version, you stick numbers on Jenga blocks and then build your tower and play as normal. However, you also have a "Question Master," and whenever a player selects a brick with a number on it, they have to answer a question. I can really see this working in my setting, and I can see how the activity can be adapted for all different kinds of ages and topics. I found that so exiting that I'm currently working on a game of Children's Rights Jenga as part of my Children's Participation project for work, and if it's successful I'd love to look at gender stereotyping and other issues in the same way. It can be difficult to engage children to think about serious issues in an After School setting, especially as they've been working hard all day at school and often just want to chill out. At the same time though (very conversely!), they do enjoy a certain level of stimulation, and I think Numbered Jenga hits the right balance of stimulation and straight-forwardness. 

The final session was an "open space" session, where anyone who wanted to open a discussion about something of interest to them could, and participants were encouraged to move around conversations and contribute what they were able. Topics ranged from how to promote intersectionality in campaigns, to how to create specific goals that can be applied in real life, to how activists and feminist organisations can work more closely together. While I initially thought this would be quite a scary thing, perhaps beyond my level of ability, actually it was not. Once a few people had suggested topics (and thereby volunteered to lead discussions), I began to think of a few possible discussions myself, and after taking part, I think I could have managed to lead a conversation had the need arisen. This was partly due to the lovely, passionate and open people who attended the day - we were a small but not too small group of really cool people, and I've really enjoyed staying in touch!

From all this positive discussion, one thing that was identified as being potentially useful was a way of linking feminists throughout Scotland. At the training day there were a lot of people from Glasgow and Edinburgh, and a few from further afield (Newcastle, Inverness-shire and myself representing Aberdeen). We realised that each city had its' own group or groups who held events or campaigns, but obviously there is strength in numbers, and a platform whereby we could connect, share ideas and information, would be great. So, we have started the Scotland Feminist Network on Facebook. Hopefully this will grow and evolve and provide a way of building momentum in feminism in Scotland. That said, it *is* just Facebook, so who knows! I would encourage anyone in Scotland reading this with an interest in equality to join and share though, it could potentially be really effective if used properly!

And that, ladies and gents, is all I have to say today! Please connect with me through the comments form below if you have anything to add, and other than that - have a lovely day!

Over and out,
Love love love,
Naomi


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