Strategies for Building Understanding for LGBTQI Community in Serbia- Let’s Work Together Project

• In Event: Catalyzing Change by Building Community Awareness and Understanding of LGBTQI+ issues in DRC, Guinea, Sierre Leone, Timor Leste and Serbia

Proposal

Starting in 2022, the “Let’s Come Out, Let’s Work Together” Project aims to educate and engage a broader swath of the local community in understanding the value and importance of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) for LGBTQI+ people in Serbia’s economic sector. The three-year activity, upon its conclusion, expects to have fostered the following strengths among LGBTQI+ individuals in Serbia: increased resilience and confidence in their abilities to compete in professional sectors as employees, entrepreneurs, and business owners; empowered LGBTQI+ leaders that are positioned to assume leadership and decisionmaking positions in their workplaces and support other LGBTQI+ entrants into the workforce; and ultimately, improved working environments for LGBTQI+ individuals in Serbia’s public and private sectors in which they will experience reduced discrimination, harassment, and incidences of withdrawal. The Activity will also strengthen capacities to educate and engage the Serbian public, employers, and employees, in understanding the value and importance of enhancing DEI supports and empowering LGBTQI+ persons in the Serbian economy. The project’s theoretical framework posits:
If LGBTQI+ youth are supported to develop competencies that enable them to succeed in the workplace and in business, taking into account their specific issues that may hinder their success; and
If employers in Serbia’s public and private sector develop and implement policies and procedures that create Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies at workplaces; and
If existing and emerging LGBTI+ entrepreneurial aspirations are supported;
Then the potential of LGBTQI+ individuals in Serbia’s workplaces and business sector will be better positioned to thrive economically, demonstrate leadership, build confidence, and change public attitudes.
Key interventions are qualitative and quantitative studies on needs among LGBTQI community and employers using focus groups, key informant interviews and surveys followed by a package of activities including soft skills training and coaching, creation of a Young Business Leaders Academy and community campaigns and outreach via dissemination channels such as E8’s Zoomer.rs portal and newsletter and IHB’s website, newsletter, and social media channels. This presentation will share data from the needs assessments in order to understand the context and needs and then share approaches from select communication campaigns. Issues like how to address considerations related to risk communication on LGBTQI+-related topics, how and when to engage with mass media channels and stakeholders, and foster ethical coverage of LGBTQI+ issues, particularly related to economic opportunities will be discussed.

Author

• Aleksa Savic, Group ''COME OUT''