All partner institutions from the Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria and Poland face intolerance during their activities with youth; inefficient national efforts against disrespect of cultural diversity and need for new strategies in order to deal with it. A part of the youth our partner organizations work with, belong to different cultural minority groups and usually, they are the main victims of intolerance. The project has identified as target group trainers, youth workers, involved in youth education. Each partner has identified the needs of his own target group to acquire new strategies to promote respect for diversity and social inclusion; on the other hand to share the strategies each partner is using, enhancing European experience to deal with cultural diversity. The project aims to develop a culture of diversity in order to facilitate the social inclusion of young people belonging to cultural minorities. The project has the following objectives: 1. To increase the professional development of each partner organization through European collaboration, through non-formal and intercultural learning for managing cultural diversity with the means of 3 Short-term joint staff training events. 2. To strengthen the networking among partners developing a new learning e-tool – "Youth RE.S.P.E.C.T", a web TV channel as a true resource of international value, bringing together the best European practices to facilitate social inclusion of young people belonging to cultural minorities. 3. To launch an awareness raising campaign "Youth RE.S.P.E.C.T. thru Cre8ivity". The objectives will be achieved through: * 3 Short-term joint staff training events during which the target groups of each partner will learn: - to produce alternative music through the preparation and use of musical instruments made of recycled materials, - through arts -to create stop-motion animation, comic strips against cultural intolerance and its consequences – in terms of digital skills, linguistic competences and knowledge, - to use land art and mail art, role playing and workshops with messages for respect for diversity, and more * "Youth RE.S.P.E.C.T", the web TV channel as digital network among partner organizations will be used to upload new resources for NGO staff, youth workers, young people being open towards interested organizations and individuals; also, a special field - Collection of best practices in non-formal learning- as a valuable tool for learning will be used by youth workers * The awareness raising campaign- "Youth RE.S.P.E.C.T. thru Cre8ivity", using non-formal methods acquired during the training events * 3 short training events for young people we are working with –according to the model of the 3 Short-term joint staff training events. The project impact on the trainers and youth workers will be very strong. They will acquire digital competences and artistic practices, will create ICT resources, will acquire competences to train youth to develop o culture of diversity, to respect cultural diversity and to stand against intolerance, for social inclusion; Also, the project will have a great impact on youth too. They will become more capable to develop a culture of diversity, to respect people belonging to different cultural diversity groups, to stand against intolerance. The partner organizations will improve their professional capacity acquiring new strategies and practice to deal with cultural diversity; they will become able to organize a wide range of events bringing innovative methods of combating intolerance, of forming youth more tolerant and more involved in the community life, of including those belonging to disadvantaged backgrounds. Due to the project, youth will stand together with the whole community against intolerance, to strengthen the networking among generations. Maintaining the website after the project end and invited new organizations, institutions involved in youth education, youth, trainers as users and journalists, the project results (articles, video products regarding flash mob, mail art with messages, land art, comic strips, alternative music production, role play regarding cultural diversity) will be used by many institutions working in youth education after the end of the project. Also, the Raising Awareness Campaign will become a tradition for all partners.
The project's goal was to foster strong European collaboration among the participating universities. The partners collaborated and learned from one another, sharing best practices and solutions for dealing with the problem. The project's goal was to create international synergy between four European groups that shared the same goals - to instill in youths a sense of solidarity, peace, equality, citizenship, and tolerance, and to facilitate the social inclusion of young people from cultural minorities. 1.Three short-term collaborative staff training activities to boost each partner's professional growth, mainly through European collaboration, non-formal and intercultural learning for managing cultural diversity. 2.To strengthen partner networking by building a new learning e-tool called "Youth RE.S.P.E.C.T.," a web TV channel that will serve as a truly international resource, bringing together the greatest European practices to help young people from various cultural minority groups integrate into society. 3. To launch an awareness-raising campaign "Youth RE.S.P.E.C.T thru Cre8tivity"
All of the project's partner institutions are dealing with challenges linked to the exclusion of young people from mainstream society in favor of young people from diverse backgrounds and cultures. As a result, STANDO (Cyprus coordinator) recently performed some research/survey among young people and discovered that young people have increased their hostility toward immigration. Intolerance of immigrants is bigger than intolerance of immigrants based on sexual orientation or ethnic background. STANDO also suffers intolerance difficulties due to Syrian war refugees arriving by boat on the island and "taking" Cypriot jobs. The young people with whom iED (Greece) works are intolerant (both the majority and minority groups are intolerant of each other); the situation has been exacerbated by the influx of Syrian war refugees. According to the need analysis conducted by SSWCB (Poland), as a university working with young people on problems of cultural diversity, they noticed the similar exclusion tendency of young people belonging to majority groups towards young people belonging to ethnic and religious minority groups. The project addressed the urgent need for tolerance, inclusivity, and empathy in youth education.