Minas promotes training for football clubs on protocols to combat violence against women

Continuing the propagation and dissemination of the Fale Agora Protocol to combat violence against women, the State Secretariat for Social Development of Minas Gerais (Sedese-MG), through the Subsecretariat for Women’s Rights Policy, will train football clubs América, Atlético MG and Cruzeiro in an action to reinforce and multiply the initiative among athletes and the football public.

The action is pioneering and includes a working group from Sedese, together with the psychology and pedagogy departments of the football clubs in the capital of Minas Gerais. The Casa da Palavra Institute is also part of the initiative, to create a training guide on the topic, in three areas of coexistence: stadiums, women’s football and the base of men’s football, working mainly on preventing new occurrences.

“The Fale Agora Protocol raises awareness in the football sector with intervention with men’s and women’s teams and also stadium employees”, says Maíra Fernandes, superintendent of Sedese and PhD in Law and Justice in the study area of ​​Gender, Sexuality and Law.

“The objective is to create multipliers who work on prevention, support and guidance in cases of harassment and other forms of sexual violence in these areas”, reinforces the specialist.

Women’s football

With the aim of creating a safe environment for women and adolescents to share situations of violence experienced and ways to overcome them, conversation circles will be held with the athletes, led by employees of the Undersecretariats for Women’s Rights and Human Rights Policy.

On game days, society will be raised awareness with the delivery of information and the temporary tattoo “Sou dona de mim”.

Youth men’s football

Reflective meetings will also be held with the youth football categories of men to discuss machismo and the role of men in protecting women, mediated by the Instituto Casa da Palavra.

Athletes will receive information on the Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA), in addition to learning about liability for infractions.

“Literacy on violence against women is extremely important for the youth categories, as it helps athletes in the process of becoming more aware, responsible citizens, with critical sense and dialogic capacity, based on rights and duties”, highlights Letícia Falcão, social worker at América Futebol Clube.

She also highlights that the initiative contributes to a healthier, respectful and inclusive sporting environment, on and off the pitch.

Training in stadiums

The training will be extended to employees of football stadiums, such as the bar sector, ticket office and, mainly, private security.

The action will present the Speak Now Protocol to publicize the service flow and forward cases of harassment and other forms of sexual violence in the camps.

Rivelle Nunes, head of communications at Arena MRV, validated the proposal. “A football stadium that receives thousands of people at each event is an important publicity location for such an important project. At Arena MRV, we saw with great enthusiasm the training that Sedese will provide for employees and we understand that this will be an important step in combating harassment.”

Training Speak Now

Access to the Fale Agora Protocol presentation services is available to sports clubs and associations in general on the Sedese website.