Though Victory Institute’s Global work to increase LGBTQI+ political participation is continuous and ever-evolving, our Leadership Training closures are always a key moment to slow down and take stock of the advancements of our work. In the last few months, we’ve ended a string of programs in Honduras, Peru and Mexico, while our partners Diversidad Dominicana in the Dominican Republic brought an incredible program to a close during Pride month with leaders from all over the island!
We would be remiss to not spotlight the local partners and leadership trainees that are the foundation of our initiatives: Caribe Afirmativo, Promsex, SOMOS CDC, and Yaaj México. Without their support and collaboration, the implementation of our training programs would not be possible.
Our final training module in the Dominican Republic by the numbers:
Dates: June 21 – 23, 2024
Participant demographics:
- 22 total graduated participants from across the Dominican Republic
Module #4 – Security:
- International Human Rights Protection Mechanisms and Their Use for Generating LGBTQI-Inclusive Public Policies
- Digital Security and LGBTQI Digital Security Measures
- Protective Conduct and Situational Awareness
In the last module of this year’s training program in the DR, our participants gathered for three days of focus on a variety of protective measures to ensure political security. Given the unique risks faced by LGBTQI+ political leaders, this module was geared towards providing trainees with the tools available to them as they continue to navigate their political careers.
To do so, expert trainers were recruited to facilitate and present the training content:
Sessions 1 & 2
Led by expert Yildalina Tatem Brache, Director of Gender Education at the Dominican Republic’s Ministry for Women, this first session focused on providing trainees a panorama of existing international protection mechanisms. This session provided practical, theoretical and firsthand perspectives from Yildalina on the formulation of LGBTQI+ and gender inclusive public policies that not only lead to increased safety and security but can also be applied to political campaign life.
The training continued with a session headed by none other than Rosanna Marzán, Executive Director of Diversidad Dominicana. With a focus on situational awareness and protective conduct, Rosanna formulated a curriculum guiding trainees on how to bring security perspective to one’s most immediate surroundings when engaging in political activities. Starting by defining and understanding physical security, this session continued forward in analyzing and engaging in practical exercises that employed a series of actions that can, and must, be taken when faced with a situation of physical threat.
Session 3
Last, but never the least important, our training wrapped up with an in-depth session on digital security and strategies for safeguarding oneself against risks generated by online activity. Digital expert Benjamin Gautreau led this final part of the curriculum running through the variety of topics from disinformation and fake news, personal data protection, social media use as well as its risks, and how to identify digital information and electoral crimes. Further than just displaying the risks of digital platforms in this training session, Benjamin gave trainee tips on how to build technological toolkits out of these same platforms and use them as a resource for political empowerment.
Beyond the Training Program
Though this set of training programs have come to a close for now, our work with partners at Diversidad Dominicana, as well as the newly graduated cohort of trainees, will continue through the rest of the year. As with all our regional partners, Victory Institute’s Global team is constantly engaging in shared initiatives and strategy-building for the years ahead in our efforts towards increasing LGBTQI+ political participation and empowerment. Keep following our blog posts to stay up-to-date on our work!
