Throughout the ‘I Act’ campaign us here in the office and the participants at our events have worked tirelessly working towards a world without sexual violence. The final step of the campaign is the Action Day. The Action Day is a day when all our member organizations can be loud, be creative and be courageous in highlighting sexual violence. The day, November 25^th, coincides with the international day for prevention of violence against women.

At the start of September, members of IFM-SEI who have previously been involved in the I Act ‘Training of Trainers’ were part of the I Act working group. The purpose of this working group that took place in Tbilisi, Georgia was to plan for the action day. The working group was a diverse, passionate group of young people with a goal of putting an end to sexual violence. The work was a result of the work the I Act campaign has done over the past year. We collated all the information and work produced from our previous study sessions. The aim of the working group was to collate the work that has already been done and plan with this in mind the I Act action day.

Each day had a different focus. We focused initially on what we had already learnt both individually and collectively. We shared this information among each other, as often the most powerful learning tool is another pair of ears and someone to bounce ideas and information off. We then thought about how we could expand on what the campaign has already done and how we can bring our collective knowledge together to create the loudest, most inclusive and most comprehensive action day.

The active bystander model has been a consistent center point of the I Act brand. The bystander model is the idea that everyone has a part to play in preventing sexual violence. Being an active bystander means seeing and saying whether it is a sexist joke or an attempt of sexual violence or anything in between it is all our responsibility to intervene and encourage others to do so as well. In light of this throughout our time in Tbilisi we referred back to this in all our work and made sure to constantly refer back to the bystander model at every step of the process.

The next following few days we used to plan and put pen to paper. Together we created a publication filled with activities to use with children and young people as well as information on the bystander model and other key aspects in relation to preventing sexual violence.  The publication is being sent to our member organization’s headquarters along with a box filled with goodies!

We look forward to your involvement on November 25^th but remember every day is a day to be an active bystander! Look out for more information coming your way soon! If you have any questions please send them our way at contact@ifm-sei.org.