IncludED

Training Programme
IncludED: Queering Sexual Education
July 2025 • Latvia

Project IncludED consisted of three phases: a Preparation Period, an 8-day Training Course in Latvia, and a Follow-up Period with local actions in each partner country.

IncludED: Queering Sexual Education was created to respond to the ongoing lack of inclusive, intersectional and affirming sexuality education for LGBTQIA+/queer youth. The goal was to equip youth workers and educators with practical and creative tools to build safer, braver learning spaces and elevate the experiences of young people in their learning environments, including Erasmus+ projects, local youth work and beyond.

The inspiration came from our team’s lived experiences of exclusion, homophobia, transphobia, sexism and systemic injustice in educational settings. We recognize that, despite the many benefits of mobility projects, significant challenges can occur, stigma, safety concerns, discrimination, language barriers, cultural differences and lack of accessibility. IncludED centers intersectionality, radical care, pleasure activism and queer joy to meet these challenges with compassion and skill.

RAINBOW STORIES

Interviews with Participants 1

Meet part of our participants who shared with us their reflections and learning outcomes from their participation.

In this first video they respond to the question: What is queering up sex ed for you?

Click below to watch the interview.

Interviews with participants 2

Meet part of our participants who shared with us their reflections and learning outcomes from their participation.

In the second video they respond to the question: Why projects like IncludED are important?

Click below to watch the interview.

Interviews with participants 3

Meet part of our participants who shared with us their reflections and learning outcomes from their participation.

In the third video they respond to the question: What are you taking home with you?

Click below to watch the interview.

Interviews with participants 4

Meet part of our participants who shared with us their reflections and learning outcomes from their participation.

In the second video they respond to the question: A message you want to share with the world.

Click below to watch the interview.

Behind the Creation Interview

Meet Viktorija Tkačenko, the trainer of of programme, as she shares the inspiration behind creating the training, the approach and the diverse and creative methods that were explored, the importance of intersectional and inclusive sex education and more.

Click below to watch the interview.

Associated Card Deck

One of the most exciting outcomes of the project is an Educational Card Deck, co-created by participants during the training.

This tool emerged from the sessions on stages of relationships, relationship anarchy, and inclusive approaches to intimacy, consent, and connection.

Follow the link to Publications to find out more.

DOWNLOAD THE DECK

Testimonials

Articles by participants about their experience during the project.

Follow the link to our blog, scroll, read their testimonials and get inspired.

TRAINING COURSE

The IncludED training course took place at Zvīguļi (Gauja National Park area, near Sigulda), Latvia, from 15–22 July 2025 (excluding travel days).

The space was held by a group of 25 participants from Moldova, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Spain, Serbia, Slovenia and Bulgaria, who came together to explore quer inclusive sex education through creative and holistic methods as such as storytelling, embodiment, art, and kinesthetic learning and more.

The training followed an interactive and experiential learning approach, involving learning by doing and peer learning. Participants were the creators of their own experience, growing with each other, and learning how to build their intercultural community, co-creating a safer and braver space, while working on their personal and professional development.

Highlights include: morning community circles; grounding and team building; support care groups (one of the support systems) contributing to community building, and reflection, introduction to inclusive sex education; intersectionality and identity-flower; destigmatizing myths about STIs; Pleasure & Anatomy sessions with guest facilitators from the local field; Embodied Exploration of Relationship Anarchy; building and testing a new card-deck; open space with exchange of tools and methods from the group, outreaching to local community with a public event in Riga, and Local Action Phase planning.

During the program, the youth workers had the opportunity to

Reflect on and enhance their competencies in inclusive sex education and deepen understanding of intersectionality, cultural sensitivity and LGBTQIA+/Queer realities across the involved countries
Discover and develop skills to facilitate topics like consent, pleasure, relationships, sexual health using embodied and creative methods that can be used also directly with their young target groups to work with sexual education beyond theory and lectures.
Practice in action within their intercultural training community radical care, peer support and learning, group reflection, exchange of their knowledge, tools and good practices
Strengthen intercultural cooperation, awareness and creating a new network of connections and organizations.
improve essential skills such as communication, teamwork, organization, time management and more.
Navigate personal and professional challenges beyond their comfort zones, while working on their personal and professional growth, with recognition through Youthpass certificate.

The 3rd phase of the project was the Local Action Phase (July–October 2025) in each participating country.

During this phase, participants put their newly gained competences into action by organizing and implementing activities in their local environments and with their target groups – from workshops and school sessions to community events, online sharing of tools, and more.

TRAINING COURSE GALLERY

TESTIMONIALS

It’s rare to find a space where you don’t have to hide your colors

Everything was held with intention. Organizers created a frame where diversity of voices could come in and from there the group carried it further. Care and attention kept flowing: checking in, holding space, making sure no one was left behind. WIthing the group truly felt like every voice mattered, every need was noticed, every person was seen. It became something deeply nourishing, built by everyone together. What stayed especially vivid was the beautiful paradox. Being surrounded by people so strong and fierce, clear and loud in defending rights and freedom, while at the same time witnessing how tenderly they treated each other. That contrast made the space feel even more alive, showing that resistance and gentleness are not opposites but companions. For a week it felt like stepping into a version of the world that already knows how to be kind. And maybe that’s what made it so powerful – living, even briefly, in the proof that such a world is possible. And in the end, what left the strongest impression on me was how simple it was for all of us to just exist, as we are, without masks or filters, and still be met with warmth and kindness. It’s rare to find a space where you don’t have to hide your colors, and that’s exactly what made this experience unforgettable. Serbia: Danica, Mili, Teodora:

This program provided us with the instruments to work toward a more inclusive community

In a way, it was like every other Erasmus program: we all shared the desire to connect with each other. But what made this project more special was something we all related to – being misunderstood in some way. Not being able to express ourselves, or doing so but with fear of our surroundings, was definitely something we all collectively responded to. I spent the whole week there without any fear or side judgment from anyone. Instead, all of us bonded through these small “rituals” we created, like painting our nails at night after dinner, or grabbing a drink and finding ourselves with eight strangers on the sofa outside, sharing one blanket, cuddling, and telling dumb stories. Not only that, but we encountered such gorgeous people from Active Rainbow, who organized everything. They created a safe space that allowed us to have a great time there, provided us with homemade food and medicine, and treated us with kindness and love – which was also followed up after the project. Most of us arrived at the venue with something on our minds, whether a personal or work drama, but the people working there were kind enough to care. This program provided us with the instruments to work toward a more inclusive community in our local environments. We all knew the challenges beforehand, but finding people resonating with that was the push I believe many of us needed. Our volunteering will continue despite the project, but now we will proceed with the memories we all shared: being in the same villa with the people we met, doing a yoga/tantra session together, having lunch with the homeowner’s cat, sitting cross-legged in the Rainbow Room sharing a laugh, or being in an hour-and-a-half discussion about free speech and gender identity. Everything about that made the project so awesome, and I am thankful to be part of this experience. Bulgaria: Nicolay:

We dismantled social stigmas

From theory and practice, the program also provided us with tools to promote critical thinking. We dismantled social stigmas such as “in a relationship of two women there is one who is like a man”, “asexual people are like that because they have a trauma” or “lesbians hate men”. We also reflect on concepts such as relational anarchy, non-monogamous relationships, and the social ladder that is established within an allocisheteronormative world. The project also employed movement activities as a way of understanding concepts and ourselves. For example, themes related to relational anarchy such as the horizontalization of affections were exposed through the coordination of movements between couples and trios, and the exploration of consent to physical contact. These dynamics allowed us to connect with the ideas in a more sensorial way, and were then complemented by a theoretical explanation. Participating in this international meeting allowed us to broaden our perspective on sex education, connect with people with whom we share queer experiences but very different realities due to the social and cultural context of different countries, and develop very interesting ideas to apply in our local areas in Spain. Spain: Eva, Ada, Delfina

I now feel a lot more confident and motivated

Overall, it was an absolutely amazing 24/7 peer to peer learning experience while also having the non-formal education sessions every day. It really impressed me how diverse the sessions were, as well as how different they were from everything I’d participated in before. The event we ended up organising in Riga was also of great importance to me. Before that, I found it so overwhelming and unbelievable that I could create something of the sort with peers that have similar resources and preparation. However, I proved to myself that this is doable and it doesn’t even require as much tedious work as I had anticipated. I now feel a lot more confident and motivated to organise activities and events of my own, and have already prepared materials for the local action phase of the project. Now that I’m back home I look back to my time in Zvīguļi as one of the most meaningful experiences of my life and I feel almost foolish for my bad expectations, since it ended up being so wonderful that it completely changed me as a person and breathed a new hope in me as an activist. I want to massively thank the Active Rainbow team for all the work they put into making this possible and I look forward to more collaborations. Moldova: Jacob

The project was organized in 2025 by Active Rainbow and co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme, which is administrated in Latvia by the Jaunatnes starptautisko programmu aģentūra (Latvian National Agency).

Partners: Gender Doc-M (Moldova), G-All – Gender Alliance Initiative (Greece), Cassero LGBTQIA+ Center / Global Cassero (Italy), Asociación Colectivo MosaiQ (Spain), Kolektiv Mana (Serbia), Bilitis Foundation (Bulgaria), Moja Mavrica (Slovenia).

Disclaimer: The information and views set out in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the European Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.