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Spray Hate Away

2021-1-DK01-KA152-YOU-0000204492021Mobility of young peoplefinalized
Countries: DK|RS|IT|ES|BG|TR · Grant: €26,749
Creativity, arts and cultureHuman rights and rule of lawPreventing racism and discrimination

Objectives

Hate speech in the public sphere takes place online and offline, and affects young girls and boys, women and men. Social media and the Internet have opened for many new arenas for exchanging opinions. Freedom of speech is an absolute value in any democracy, both for the public and for the media. At the same time, opinions and debates challenge us as hate speech are spread widely and frequently on new platforms for publishing. Hate speech may cause fear and can be the reason why people withdraw from the public debate, as a result important voices that should be heard in the public debate are silenced. Hate speech may be directed against people based on ethnicity, religion, disability, or sexual orientation. Hate speech has serious consequences for individuals, groups, and the whole society, that is why it is important to take a stand and show that this cannot be tolerated. The problem about hate speech is that most people are not aware of what it is, that is why we with this project we wanted to combat ignorance and take a concrete step in making young people (and the citizens affected by the project) understand what can be done against the spread of this negative phenomenon. We wanted to carry out this project as a direct result of the partner consortium aims and objectives. During the activity week in Denmark, an anti-hate spray wall featuring graffiti was supposed to be created, according to the project application. Multiple difficulties had occurred throughout the project due to the shaky COVID-19 period. It was challenging to get everything organized. Initially, we were unable to execute the spray wall activity as we had hoped. We didn’t perceive it as having a significant adverse impact on achieving the project's goals. The project application stated that the ultimate objective of the project was to implement initiatives to combat Hate Speech by tackling issues such as - raising awareness of hate speech; - increasing consciousness regarding the need to defend Human Rights; - addressing local community ignorance on Hate Speech, racism, antisemitism, intolerance, and xenophobia and its repercussions; - empowering young people to take effective steps to protect human rights; - promoting active youth engagement, assisting young people in becoming agents of change for the better in their communities and across Europe; - developing a deeper comprehension of the ideas of democracy, citizenship, and participation. In order to avoid offending the target group's delicate sensibilities, we also took their sensitivity into account when deciding not to use the graffiti wall. So we resolved to take precautions for their emotional health. A further rationale for failing to put up the graffiti wall was that we didn't think the group was prepared for it. Instead, we suggested a more individual activity where each participant had their own envelope and could communicate how they felt about themselves with others if they felt ready to do so. We provided educational resources to be used throughout the exchange to inform our target group about the perils of hate speech and how to put an end to it. These resources could come in many workshop forms. By promoting constructive discussion, offering suitable conversational subjects, and emphasizing valuable content, we highlighted effective dialog. As a result, a setting came into existence that fostered learning, teamwork, and idea-sharing. Consequently, we listen to the needs and emotional well-being of our group. Many of our participants have been subjected to various shapes of hate speech, thus it is our responsibility to ensure that every activity we conduct respects the participants' sensitivities. The main action carried out in the project was a Youth Exchange, in which we aimed of reaching most of our goals, through a real involvement of young people participating from 6 Countries and a well-developed Dissemination plan. Our young participants participated in this project have been involved in the project design phase.

Project partners (6)