Festival concept to counteract unwelcome behaviour
KTH has trained 700 students and staff in “Dare to Care”, a concept developed to create a safer environment at festivals. It includes active bystander behaviour - how to intervene in situations where someone else is at risk of harm.
"Dare to Care is an exciting concept that can help us become even better at working with safety and inclusion. We started the initiative together with the students and now we will continue to work so that the initiative also reaches all KTH employees," says Katarina Jonsson Berglund, Head of KTH's Education Office.
Between 12 and 16 May, around 500 reception mentors and 200 education support staff have been trained in how to contribute to safer environments and be active bystanders. The initiative is organised in collaboration with the Student Union at KTH (THS) and the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU).
‘Promotes a positive culture of care’
RFSU's Dare to Care concept was originally developed to promote mutual sexual encounters and prevent abuse at festivals, clubs and other events.
"Dare to Care was created with the aim of promoting a positive culture of caring. Something we feel works very well with the concept is that we assume that people want to be caring and contribute to the creation of safe environments, that they want to be part of the solution. If we give people the opportunity to reflect on how they themselves would act in a situation where someone else is at risk of being victimised, the likelihood of acting increases if something actually happens," says Hanna Knutsson, JML strategist at KTH's Equality Office.
A broader perspective
At KTH, the concept is being further developed to suit the university world and therefore the initiative has a broader perspective, to strengthen the ability to act on other types of offensive or discriminatory expressions.
"Our advantage is that we dare to look at greater inclusion. You should feel welcome at KTH regardless of who you are and where you come from," Jonsson Berglund says.
‘Very excited’
Over the past year, various Dare to Care initiatives have taken place in KTH's student environments. Among other things, everyone involved in the reception of new students has been trained, as well as the student union's JML officers and security guards who work with students. RFSU has also participated in student pubs.
"I have basically only seen positive reactions. People are very excited. The positive approach reaches out to those who are perhaps most important to reach out to, those who do not already know about or are super committed to JML issues," says Oliver Salomonsson, study environment manager at THS.
Work is now continuing to see how Dare to Care can also be implemented for employees.
Text: Sabina Fabrizi