Supporting families to prevent violence against gay and lesbian youths.
A European Commission funded project

The two-year Family Matters project (2006-2008) was funded by the European Commission through their Daphne programme. It was managed by members of the Department of Social Research, University of East Piedmont, Italy, who supported three voluntary organisations of parents and families of gay and lesbian people in Italy (Agedo) Spain (Ampgyl) and the UK (FFLAG) by providing overall guidance on the project as a whole, as well as undertaking research on families of gay and lesbian people in Italy.

Through this project we wanted to develop support for families and help them accept their lesbian and gay children and siblings.  This will in turn allow them to become a source of support for lesbian and gay young people in their struggle to deal with social stigmatization, homophobia and violence.

Research presented at final conferences in 2008 in Bristol, Barcelona and Firenze drew on three individual projects.  Research on the experiences of parents and siblings of gay and lesbian young people in Italy, with a survey and interviews involving more than 200 parents, showed that families lack information, codes of communication and behaviour, and support when facing disclosure of homosexuality. Research conducted in Spain on support aimed at family members by the public sector and in the UK on support by non-government organisations shows that there are the foundations for good service provision in this field but there is need for considerable capacity-building.  (See Reports for copies of the full reports out of the research.) 

Other achievements of this project include a documentary film Two times parents, on the experience of parents of gay and lesbian young people in Italy (subtitled in English and Spanish), an educational manual for family members and professionals, and this web site.

The Family Matters project finished with a final conference in Firenze, Italy on 20th/21st June 2008.  The conference proceedings are also available under the Conference button.