Training module on providing adequate services to LGBTIQ+ children in vulnerable contexts

LGBTIQ children need the support of those professionals who work directly with them on a daily basis. These professionals include teachers, social and health workers, psychologists, and others in the care sector and children’s services.

LGBTIQ children need this support in order to build resilience in the face of social barriers arising from a low level of understanding of their needs. This publication aims to assist trainers who seek to enhance the capacities of the aforementioned groups of professionals, so that these professionals can better understand and provide adequate services to LGBTIQ children in vulnerable contexts, with a particular focus on the post-Covid-19 environment.
The training module considers the main findings of the field research for the “Colourful Childhoods” project, which explored the needs of LGBTIQ children in vulnerable contexts in Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, and Spain. It also looked at questions of resilience in response to the Covid-19 context.

The four-hour intensive training workshop incorporates training techniques targeted at adult learners. The training aims to facilitate active learning and interaction between the trainer(s) and the trainees, as well as among the trainees themselves. Each trainer is encouraged to make necessary adjustments and adaptations based on their own experience and skills, the national/social context in which they are working, the selection of topics they wish to focus on, and the profile and background of their trainees.

This module is based on field-tested training materials that were developed within EUfunded projects worked on by partners in this consortium. These projects are: Diversity and Childhood, CHOICE, BringIn, and Come Forward. The learning materials have been further developed and adapted to the objectives of Colourful Childhoods project.