CRISSCROSS project presents its pilot in Sant Cugat

A team will be present in leisure and nightlife venues to raise awareness and prevent gender-based violence

The European project CRISSCROSS, coordinated by the ABD Group, has presented this Wednesday the pilot initiative to prevent gender and LGTBIQ+ phobic violence and to inform and advise on risk reduction and sexualities in Sant Cugat del Vallès. The municipality is one of the cities that will be part of the Europe-wide pilot of the CRISSCROSS project, along with Porto, Dublin, Luxembourg and Milan.

Since May, the CRISSCROSS team has been doing interventions in nightlife spaces in Sant Cugat.

“Most of the youth, and also the people passing by, appreciate and welcome our presence in their leisure space. Young people show a lot of interest in using the breathalyser and in the responsible dispensing of barriers. Following the peer to peer approach, these two services have a very good pedagogical potential in leisure spaces“, explained the CRISSCROSS pilot manager, Jordi Navarro.

Project phases

The project has four phases:

Research and training: the CRISSCROSS project has included a previous phase of needs analysis and training of professionals working with adolescents and young people in the prevention of violence in leisure contexts. To this end, specialized training has been given to some fifty people from the educational and social fields, as well as to personnel working in the bars of popular festivals. We have also worked on the identification and compilation of good practices in addressing gender-based violence in nightlife venues.
Implementation of the pilots: from May to October, four professionals will intervene every Friday in the most frequented nightlife areas of the municipality. These professionals will be located at a stand, where they will provide information and advice on risk reduction and sexualities. There will also be itinerant actions of prevention and awareness of violence in leisure spaces.
Communication campaign: To raise awareness among European citizens about gender-based violence, sexual violence and violence against the LGTBI population in leisure contexts. Advocacy campaign to involve institutions, public authorities and stakeholders to ensure sustainability and replicability of pilot initiatives.
Evaluation: All the data collected during these months will be transferred to the University of Seville for an evaluation of the interventions and a diagnosis of the current situation.

The City Council of Sant Cugat has already promoted measures in this line, from the promotion of Health and in coordination with the Section of Equality and feminisms, offering the Puntos Lilas (safe spaces for GBV victims) and Puntos Amarillos (hubs of information and reduction of risks associated with consumption) in the framework of Fiesta Mayor, as well as from the Quality Nights program (Gencat); and reinforces with this new initiative its commitment to health, coexistence and against male violence in nightlife.

“CRISSCROSS is an opportunity to finance, with European funds, a service that we believe is essential to ensure a healthier, free and safe leisure in the party spaces of Sant Cugat and to continue training our young people in the values of coexistence,” said the councilor of Health, Nuria Fernandez.

Based on the research carried out and the good practices identified and the needs and experiences obtained through the implementation of the pilots, CRISSCROSS will prepare a document of policy recommendations “that will serve organizations and administrations to implement initiatives for the prevention of violence in leisure contexts”, concluded Lara Rot, coordinator of European projects at ABD.