Upon the invitation by Association “Rainbow” from Serbia, Antonio Mihajlov and Viktorija Bondikjova together with a group of volunteers at Subversive Front, participated at the conference “Advanced training courses for working with sexual and gender minorities and their families within the system for social protection” organized by Association “Rainbow” and the Office for human and minority rights of the government of the Republic of Serbia. The conference was held on 10th February, 2017 at the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade as part of the project “Creating tolerance and understanding towards LGBT population in the Serbian society”, which is financed by the embassy of the Kingdom of Norway, and implemented by the Office for human and minority rights of the government of the Republic of Serbia.
LGBTI activists from various NGOs, pedagogues, psychologists and social workers from the centers for social work in Serbia attended the conference, as well as representatives of state institutions in Serbia. During the conference, certain topics were discussed: examples of positive practices in the work with LGBT persons and their families, outcomes from the training courses conducted in the system for social protection and recommendations for further work, as well as perspectives on multi-sectoral collaboration on a local, regional and national level. Antonio made a speech on the collaboration of Subversive Front with Association “Rainbow”, the importance of the collaboration between the countries in the region in achieving the goals for improving the current situation, the general climate regarding LGBTI rights in Macedonia and the activities of S-Front, and the opportunities for future initiatives.
A Manual for youth workers was promoted at the conference as one of the results from the project within Erasmus+ programme: KA2: “Capacity building of youth workers in providing services to LGBT+ youth”. This Manual was created during the training course conducted in Subotica, Serbia, from 7th – 15th December 2016, together with the youth workers from the five countries in the region: Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. The project was implemented by Association “Rainbow” in collaboration with the partner organizations: Subversive Front from Macedonia, Independent – Zenica from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bonsai from Croatia and LGBT Forum Progres from Montenegro. The main goal of the project is to increase the cooperation between youth from these 5 countries through non-formal education, so they can increase their knowledge and improve their skills in offering an adequate and sensible approach in the work and support of LGBT+ youth in the region.