The Institute for Labor Studies (ILS) marked Pride Month Celebration with a Gender and Development (GAD) and Mental Health Workshop as a major activity during the 2023 Team Cohesion event held from June 7 to 9 in Morong, Bataan.

The Team Building started with the Opening Remarks of Officer-in-Charge Executive Director III Jeanette T. Damo. This was followed by the Gender and Development and Mental Health Workshop spearheaded by the ILS GAD Committee. ILS invited Ms. Josephine Gabriel-Banaag, a subject matter expert and a certified member of the Philippine Commission on Women GAD Resource Pool Batch Six to deliver Gender Diversity and Social Inclusion, and Mental Health training to promote self-care and a sense of belongingness among the staff of ILS in the workplace.

In her presentation, Ms. Gabriel-Banaag discussed basic gender sensitivity topics such as gender equality, embracing diversity, and stress management in the promotion of mental health and well-being in the workplace. Interactive workshops were also conducted to cultivate active participation among the ILS employees. Participants were instructed to create their own self-care plan as a major final output.

Pride Month is an annual global observance for the fight for gender equality and the events of the long years of struggle for diversity and inclusion of persons of diverse Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Expression, and Sexual Characteristics (SOGIESC). ILS is one with the International Labour Organization in the promotion of the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ+) persons in the world of work.