Project title: “#SentH@ateAway” Duration: 18 months Partnership: Foundation Korenyak (Lead Partner, Bulgaria); Asociation El Cerro de Extremadura (Spain); Madonna de la Caritta (Italy); Društvo za razvijanje prostovoljnega dela Novo mesto (Slovenia); OMEGA (Bulgaria) Primary goal of this project is to stimulate the cooperation between a diverse range of partners active in youth field both at national and international level in order to allow them to explore, share, analyze and upgrade ideas, experience, know-how and best practices in youth work and in particular, in addressing the problem of hate speech online. The idea is to support the joint development of a new integrated tool for youth work applying a new set of methods making use of non-formal education in combination with ICT and audio visual content as a means to prevent and control aggression toward migrants/refugees online, to promote tolerance and non-discrimination. It will allow better reaching out to and working with young people with a view to strengthen their knowledge and acceptance of diversity in society, to foster their capacity and motivation for active participation both online and offline against hate speech and for defending human rights & equal opportunities. Through involvement of partners with complementary profile, experience & expertise from different sectors, project not only internationalizes youth work, but also allows greater permeability across diverse fields of actions concerning young people and expands opportunities for wider access to target groups & stakeholders Overall objective: to deliver quality in non-formal education and youth work in the specific dimension of combating hate speech online by supporting intensive cooperation and exchange of good practices between organizations with different profile and role in the youth field as well as the joint development of a new tool for preventing and controlling youth aggressive behaviors towards migrants and refugees both online and offline Spec. objectives: -To create proper opportunities for partner organizations for work-based learning and exchange of good practices and innovative solutions in youth work related to addressing the problem of hate speech online, to tackling cyberbullying, discrimination and aggression toward migrants and refugees online -To create space and opportunities for jointly development of new integrated tool for youth work based on non-formal education with extensive use of ICT and audio visual content – as a means to prevent and control aggressive behaviours towards migrants/refugees and to develop youth knowledge and capacity for “online activism” and participation in the democratic governance of the Internet -To support the professional development and capacity enhancement of youth workers in relation to strengthening their role as support structures and for the subsequent application of the examined best practices and the planned new tool -To provide open resources for stimulating and organizing the follow-up activities of youth workers in providing continuous support to young “online activists” in identifying, reporting, monitoring and discussing hate speech towards migrants/refugees in its online dimension with a view to promote non-violence, tolerance and peace Key project products (tangible results): - Studies and analyses reports - “Manual for Combating Cyberhate Towards Migrants and Refugees through Non-Formal Education based on the Use of ICT and Audio Visual Content” - Specific project blog- as a tool for reporting and discussing examples of hate speech online submitted by users (in particular, towards migrants/refugees) as well as to organise actions against hate speech. They will serve as open resources supporting the subsequent activity of youth workers in applying the intended new approach
The total duration of the project was 18 months as it was implemented in partnership between 4 NGOs: Foundation Korenyak (Lead Partner, Bulgaria); Asociation El Cerro de Extremadura (Spain); Madonna de la Caritta (Italy); Društvo za razvijanje prostovoljnega dela Novo mesto (Slovenia); OMEGA (Bulgaria). The main objective of the project was successfully achieved, namely through sharing, upgrading, analysis of ideas and good practices in working with young people and vulnerable groups by cooperation between a wide range of partners active in the field of youth activities. A new integrated approach and model for work with youth has been developed jointly by applying a new set of methods related to the use of non-formal education in combination with ICT and audiovisual content, as a means of preventing and controlling online aggression against migrants / refugees, to promote tolerance and non-discrimination. This approach allows the process to better reach and work with young people with a view to strength their knowledge and acceptance of diversity in society, enhancing their capacity and motivation to actively participate both online and offline against hate speech and protect human rights and equal opportunities. Through the involvement of partners with different profile and experience in various sectors, the project not only internationalized youth work but also allowed greater flexibility of work in variety of action fields related to young people by expanding opportunities for wider access to target groups and stakeholders. Appropriate opportunities have been created for partner organizations for work-based learning and exchange of good practices and innovative solutions to work with young people to tackle the problem of online hate speech, combating cyber hate, discrimination and aggression against migrants and refugees. A new integrated approach for youth work based on non-formal education with extensive use of ICT and audio-visual content was jointly developed, as a tool to prevent and control aggressive behaviour towards migrants / refugees and to develop youth knowledge and capacity for 'online activism' and participation in democratic governance of the Internet. Through the participation of youth workers, representatives of partner organizations, in 5 transnational seminars, their capacity was enhanced in relation to strengthening their role as support structures and subsequent implementation of the best practices explored, as well as the developed tool. The main project results (5 Research and Analysis Reports and Manual for Combating Cyberhate Towards Migrants and Refugees through Non-Formal Education based on the Use of ICT and Audio Visual Content) are provided as open sources with free access for the stakeholders, and in this way they serve as an open resources supporting the subsequent activity of youth workers in applying the developed new approach. They encourage the follow-up of youth workers to provide ongoing support to young online activists in identifying, reporting, monitoring and discussing hate speech against migrants / refugees in its online dimension with a view to promote non-violence, tolerance and peace. In addition to the aforementioned results, a special project blog was developed to serve as a tool for reporting and discussing examples of online hate speech, submitted by users (in particular, towards migrants/refugees) as well as to organise actions against hate speech.