up! international

Info

up! international is about persons affected by direct violence, with a special focus on violence against males. We care, we speak out and take action.

Geschichte

up! was founded in 2012 as a politically independent organisation with headquarters in Bern, Switzerland.

up! is an NGO focusing on exposing and reducing forms of direct violence.up! has a particular interest in violence against vulnerable men and boys as this remains taboo and misunderstood, and consequently gets little attention. As we have seen through our experience, specific support services to male victims of violence are still sadly lacking in both Northern and Southern countries.

To approach violence prevention effectively, we advocate for evidence-based approaches that require a deep understanding of local culture, context and practices to enable sustainable change. up! international focuses on four main pillars of work:

1) Research
We believe in the importance of sound research and baseline studies to develop needs-driven, effective and cost-efficient responses. We are committed to making a small but significant contribution to ensuring that useful data is made available.

2) Projects
Our approach is to develop an understanding of the situation in a given context, to listen to what people directly affected by violence think would be helpful and to identify knowledge-based custom-tailored approaches and facilitating implementation.

3) Awareness and advocacy
We believe in the importance of structural change, and raise awareness on the plight of vulnerable groups and break the silence where social taboos are upheld. We advocate for context-specific responses and strategies on the national and international level, by influencing policy and decision makers in politics, international organisations, NGOs and whoever will listen to us, creating meaningful partnerships with other stakeholders, consulting and engaging with leaders in civil society and government and raising public awareness on violence and preventive factors and intervention measures.

4) Consultancy
We consult NGOs and social organisations on a range of topics, including:
- Impact-driven approaches
- Programme design
- Strategy development
- Leadership and team development
- Conflict analysis & conflict-sensitive project design
- Substance use issues