Wat wij met ons spel willen bereiken is mannelijke kwetsbaarheid versterken in een leuke manier. Zo hebben wij bedacht dat wij de HVA introweken willen helpen met ons idee.

It is time to do our prototypes. The Men-tal Heath group have two initiatives within their project. A ‘Confession Box’ and a ‘Men’s Mental Health Walk’.

The Consent Project prototyped their idea and love to share their first experiences with you. On the 8th of May they will present an further upgraded version.

Last Grensverleggers weekend was our second weekend coming together with 44 young people, coming from all corners of the world (not just The Netherlands!). In total, they formed 8 different project groups, who set up their own project in 10 weeks.

The team hit the streets to interview men within the specified age groups, totaling about 25 interviews. Initially daunting, as time passed, it became easier and enjoyable. We engaged in meaningful conversations and received affirmation that our idea could work.

This Grensverleggers, ‘safe campus edition’ is a journey to dive deeper and to explore our hidden qualities by pushing our boundaries to reinvent ourselves. We contribute as aspiring ambassadors of social safety, diversity, and inclusion for our new international HAN campus.

With a clear objective in mind, our mission is to raise awareness on consent and boundaries. Together we join our voices to amplify crucial discussions, on both consent and boundaries, that tend to be overlooked. We are a deeply committed group of women in their twenties hoping to shed light on the importance of respecting boundaries for the safety and well-being of all.

We noticed there was a substantial difference in the treatment and the dialogue surrounding mental health for women vs for men and the effects this was causing in some of us and those in our close circle.

After the training weekend, we embarked on a research phase. We collected data by engaging students from every faculty through various methods. We created an online survey to analyze how and whether gender expectations, cultural norms, and other factors affect students.

The steps started on the first weekend when we had all the workshops where we got introduced to a lot of concepts that opened our minds. Then we sat down with our student coach and started brainstorming. Back at school, we made plans, mindmaps, miro board, and more.

So, what did we explore? Well, actually, we merged two different topics into one tasty blend. Nanouk, Jasmijn and Robbin looked at how men can take responsibility when it comes to sexually transgressive behavior, while Roxy and Henriette delved into the impact of traditional masculinity on queer men.

We asked three men to read The will to change. We already interviewed one of them and we will interview the other men in the following weeks. After these interviews, they will get together to discover the differences and similarities of their experiences.