Groups

Anti-Sexism | Feminist Movement | UN Fourth World Conference on Women - Bejing, China | GLBTQ | INCITE | Men's Liberation | Conclusion| Anti-Sexism Sources

Description

Mentors In Violence Prevention (MVP)

Mission Statement

The mission of MVP is to raise awareness about the level of men’s violence against women, challenge the thinking of mainstream society, open dialogue between men and women, and inspire leadership by empowering people with concrete options to effect change.

General Overview

Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) is a leadership program that motivates student-athletes and student leaders to play a central role in solving problems that historically have been considered "women's issues": rape, battering, and sexual harassment.

Utilizing a unique bystander approach to prevention, the MVP program views student-athletes and student leaders not as potential perpetrators or victims, but as empowered bystanders who can confront abusive peers. This emphasis reduces the defensiveness men often feel and the helplessness women often feel when discussing issues of men's violence against women.

The mixed gender, racially-diverse MVP Program, composed of former professional and college athletes, motivates men and women to work together in preventing gender violence. | Jackson Katz is the co-founder of MVP is an anti-sexist male activist who concetrates on the prevention of violence. | List Of Events All information taken from [1]

Mission Statement

The mission of the Men's Resource Center for Change is to support men, challenge men's violence, and develop men's leadership in ending oppression in ourselves, our families, and our communities. Our programs support men to overcome the damaging effects of rigid and stereotyped masculinity, and simultaneously confront men's patterns of personal and societal violence and abuse toward women, children, and other men.

General Overview

Since its inception in 1982, the MRC has systematically grown from a small grass-roots network of men into a comprehensive well-respected men's center serving communities throughout the region.

Our philosophy of "supporting men and challenging violence" gives us a broad capacity for reaching men. Anti-violence programs are more effective when the men feel accepted as men at the same time that their violent or abusive behavior is rejected. Support programs are more effective when men receive a sympathetic hearing of their own concerns but also know that violence, abuse, and blaming are not acceptable. Boys and young men respond to education programs presented by men who are living proof that a positive masculinity is possible.

-All information taken from [2] MRC

Robert Allen founder of Oakland Men's Project (OMP)

Mission

To educate young boys and girls about gender roles implications in society and what the kids can do to change those views which lead to violence. Teach men to recognize the socialization of violence that confines them, but also encourage them "to step out of the box." Through their training, the leaders try to show that the socialization not only sets men up to act in a violent manner, but it also trains them to shut down emotionally.

General Overview

Allen is also a former abuser who believes it is important for people who have survived or witnessed domestic violence to "break through the silence" of shame. The premise of our workshops is that the male socialization in American culture trains men to accept violence as normal. Allen says, "Where we are fundamentally challenged is in the culture at large. And a construction of manhood that says (violence) is acceptable is in itself a problem. And since our premise is that this is a general thing in American culture, as far as we're concerned, all men and boys are at risk for becoming perpetrators of violence."[3]

Gender Equality and Men (GEM) Project

Mission

There is a concern about the power and privileges that men as a group hold in most - if not all - societies, the past 10 to 15 years has seen growing interest in men's actual and potential contribution to gender equality. Oxfam's Gender Equality and Men (GEM) Project has been exploring since 2002 what part men can play in gender equality and anti-poverty initiatives

General Overview

The Gender Equality and Men (GEM) project started in 2002 as an initiative by its UK Poverty Programme and its Middle East, Eastern Europe and CIS (MEEECIS) region, with funding from Oxfam and the UK Department for International Development. The project has been assisting Oxfam to explore how it can advance gender equality and poverty reduction by incorporating men and boys more fully in the organisation’s gender work.

GEM has supported activities such as:

• regional workshops on men and masculinities in the UK, East Asia and South Africa;

• an internal course (“the Gender Journey”) that has trained a number of key male advocates of gender equality in our organisation;

• piloting new approaches to work with men in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Albania, and the Negev Desert (Israel);

• policy and practice change at different levels of government (Yemen and the UK ). Ruxton S (2002) Men, Masculinities and Poverty in the UK, Oxford: Oxfam GB

Most Recent Development- New GEM Publication: ‘Gender Equality and Men: Learning from Practice’

Description

This new Oxfam book was published in July 2004. Based on examples of interventions in five fields (reproductive and sexual health; fatherhood; gender-based violence; livelihoods; and work with young men) from a range of countries, this edited collection brings together contributions from fourteen development practitioners and researchers working in many parts of the world who are seeking to promote gender equality among men.

-All information taken from [4] Oxfam