"We Shan’t TolerHate" (WSTH) is a Strategic Partnership lasting 24 months focused on promoting youth volunteering as an instrument to contrast discrimination against migrants and refugees among the youth categories and within the hosting societies at large. The surge in intolerance, stereotyping and discrimination against migrants and refugees represents one of the most glaring realities influencing political and civil society debate, particularly in the European polities most sensibly hit by the massive migrants and refugee flows from Africa and the Middle Eastern region. Eurostat quantifies in 164.300 the number of extra-EU nationals who sought asylum in the EU-28 during the third quarter of 2017. In its Report covering the period between 2015 and 2016, the European Network Against Racism highlighted a concerning upward trend in episodes of racism, discrimination and aggression against migrants, in coincidence with the intensification in the migration crisis and the resulting spike in antimigration political discourse and exclusionary migration policies across the European Union. The Report also identified a statistical increase in direct violence against refugees and asylum seekers in Europe. This pattern of discrimination, stereotyping and attack (physical as well as verbal) is fuelled by and feeds a sliding of public debate over migrants and migration towards a subalternity to the dichotomic categorizations and confrontational positions expressed by populist, extremist and generally farright movements, which increasingly gain access to the mainstream public debate and realm of policies. Young people are particularly vulnerable to racist and discriminatory propaganda and messages, in particular considering their preferential use of Social Media, wherein this type of aggressive and discriminatory speech is ever more circulated. The necessity of setting the conditions for youth awareness about racism and discrimination as well as of the active contrast thereof in the field of youth is stressed by the European Youth Strategy, which sets the objective of supporting the development of cultural awareness and the contrast of prejudice among the youth. WSTH pursues these objectives by means of selecting and training a cluster of youth volunteers actively committed to contrasting feelings and practices of discrimination among young people as well as promoting the positive values of tolerance and respect of diversity enshrined in European identity and citizenship WSTH activities are: - Research and identification of European good practices in contrasting radicalization and prejudice among young people through Storytelling, Sport and Art. - Selection of a cluster of 10 young people per partner country (5 of local and 5 of migrant origins) to take part in the process of educational empowerment delivered in the project. - Implementation of 3 Blended Youth Mobilities (1 per partner country) wherein partners will develop the knowledge, skills and competences of selected youngsters in employing unconventional instruments of Non Formal Education (Storytelling, Sport and Art) as tools for contrasting phenomena of racism and xenophobia among their fellow young people, as well as spreading positive values of inclusion and tolerance. - Implementing a set of local activities delivered by participating youngsters in each partner country towards an audience of their own peers (locals and migrants). The focus of the activities will be to convey the educational message of the project to youngsters in local realities. - Developing educational resources (Research Reports, Manual and Blog) in multiple languages allowing a wide accessibility and disclosure of project results and thereby producing a direct impact on the audience of youngsters and youth operators in partner countries and in Europe at large.
1- Social Inclusion The project sets the conditions for an active youth awareness and committment in rejecting and contrasting speech and practice of prejudice, discrimination and racism against migrants and refugees at the level of the youth categories and in the more comprehensive contexts of European societies. WSTH is inspired by the massive spill-overs of the present challenge of migrant and refugee integration on the public debate and overall collective perceptions within the hosting societies. 2-Promoting Quality Youth Work.. WSTH will directly impact on the existing educational offer of youth NGOs and operators by means of producing a specific educational format for the empowerment of prospective volunteers of intercultural dialogue within the categories of the youth, complemented by a Manual detailing the proceedings and methodologies of the entire learning process carried out in the context of the project. The materials, made openly available in multiple languages on a discrete Web Platform, will directly support the activities and quality offer of youth operators and organizations towards their audience of youth beneficiaries through providing with opportunities of methodological development in the use of methods of NFE
The surge in intolerance, stereotyping and discrimination against migrants and refugees represents one of the most glaring realities influencing political and civil society debate, particularly in the European polities most sensibly hit by the massive migrants and refugee flows from Africa and the Middle Eastern region.Eurostat quantifies in 164.300 the number of extra-EU nationals who sought asylum in the EU-28 during the third quarter of 2017.In its Report covering the period between 2015 and 2016, the European Network Against Racism highlighted a concerning upward trend in episodes of racism, discrimination and aggression against migrants, in coincidence with the intensification in the migration crisis.This pattern of discrimination, stereotyping and attack is fuelled by and feeds a sliding of public debate over migrants and migration towards a subalternity to the dichotomic categorizations and confrontational positions expressed by populist, extremist and generally far right movements, which increasingly gain access to the mainstream public debate and realm of policies.Young people are particularly vulnerable to racist and discriminatory propaganda and messages, in particular considering their preferential use of Social Media.