Good practice

Many youth services already do some great work to prevent and tackle homophobic bullying and to make all young people feel welcome and supported.

Challenging homophobic language

"As a youth and community worker I often have to challenge young people on homophobic language and comments that they may make such as, “that’s gay…..” .  I find this brings about great discussion and makes them think about their behaviour and the effect it can have on others.
 
Recently I ran a session in a Pupil Referral Unit - alternative education provision for young people who find it hard to conform to the norms of mainstream schooling.  In the session we watched one of the chapters of the Stonewall FIT DVD, played games and had a discussion around the effects of bullying. At the start of the session the young people said they could recognise if a person was gay straight away. As we watched the FIT DVD the young people started to realise that it was not always possible to know someone's sexuality just by looking at them and to question some of their views. By the end of the session the young people started to realise that some of the comments they used to make could be hurtful and that it does not really matter what someone's sexuality is as we are all the same. They talked about some of the effects of their behaviour on other people - including not doing anything or laughing at what people say. Their views were challenged and they were prepared to think more about their future actions."

Area Youth & Community Worker

Creating inclusive environments

"It is essential in youth work that we have sessions that are open and accessible for all young people whatever their background, their race, their gender and their sexuality. The Single Equality Bill introduced this year will strengthen the legal responsibilities of public authorities to make sure that they not only respond to discriminatory activity and bullying of young people, but provide environments that promote equal opportunity and inclusively. 
 
This is something that we take seriously and are setting up youth led committees to make sure this commitment to equal opportunity is turned into action. One area of this work is to develop an anti bullying policy for young people that looks specifically at the prevention of homophobic bullying. This will be devised once the recruitment and training of the committee has taken place.  We endeavour to have this done by this time next year.
 
On top of this we are aiming to develop a provision specifically for lesbian, gay and bisexual young people and those who identify as trans or queer (LGBTQ) for the following reasons: 

1. In this borough there is no provision or club for LGBTQ young people - as a young person understanding and managing your developing sexuality can be difficult - this is particularly true for young people who are LGBTQ who can sometimes feel isolated, and at worse feel victimised by others. Here they could share their views and feelings and get support from workers and other young people. 
2. From having conversations with LGBTQ adults - it is clear they felt lonely and alienated and would have loved the safe space to have a club that was specifically for LGBTQ young people.  

Area Youth & Community Worker

• If you would like to tell us about good practice examples, please e-mail education@stonewall.org.uk 

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