This project aims to involve youth from the countries of former Yugoslavia, that are working in the field of human rights protection and promotion, social inclusion, intercultural dialogue and to challenge prejudices and discrimination in their respective societies by using Living Library method. Experience with this method showed what a strong impact it can have on wider communities where Living Libraries have been organised and has the potential to mobilise not only youth, but also general public and has great visibility. This project is needed because more and more youth NGOs from the target region have recognised Living Library as one of the most effective tools for challenging stereotypes, stigma, prejudices and discrimination. The main effect of this method is to contribute to the social in clusion of different marginalised groups of young people and reduce social distance of the citizens towards people from disadvantaged groups who are a subject of stigma and bias and breaking stereotypes and prejudices. Project envisages several phases and activities, starting with a kick-off and initial training for the Living Library organisers in Croatia, for representatives from each of the countries, which will include a small Living Library. In order to have better outreach and include as many trained people as possible and create a “snow-ball effect”, second training would be organised in Serbia for the new organisers, which will be followed up by the four month period where Living Libraries will be organised in each of the partner countries. Every partner will also create a short film about their LL which will also include short testimonials from the participants - Living Books, volunteers, guests. In the final phase of the project, a common movie will be created from all of the short movies, that would be officially launched during the final evaluation meeting in Bosnia, and spread all over social media and the feedback on the whole project would be collected this way. All previous experiences show that the Living Library method has very high visibility in the communities, has been found effective on the wider public, attractive to the media and also used widely in the educational institutions as a great tool for teaching human rights education. It’s been widely accepted in Serbia, BiH, Croatia and Slovenia, and this project will also serve as great peer learning by involving partner countries such as Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo, where Living Libraries still haven’t been implemented. One of the strongest points in this method is that it empowers organisers and their beneficiaries by giving them new skills and giving them opportunity to network with people from various discriminated groups. Added value is also part of the common social and cultural heritage from the former Yugoslavia that brings all the positive nostalgic undertone to this partnership.
Projects is capacity building activity of consortium from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia with the aim to involve youth from the countries of former Yugoslavia, that are working in the field of human rights protection and promotion, social inclusion, intercultural dialogue and to challenge prejudices and discrimination in their respective societies by using Living Library method. It works just like a ordinary library: visitors can browse the catalogue for the available titles, choose the book they want to read, and borrow it for a limited period of time (30 minutes).After reading, they return the book to the library and, if they want, borrow another. The only difference is that in the Living Library, Books are people, and reading consists of a conversation. We also have Librarians, Volunteers,Promoters, Dictionaries and Coordinator of Living library. Once more, this method showed what a strong impact it can have on wider communities where Living Libraries have been organized and has the potential to mobilise not only youth, but also general public and has great visibility.The main effect of this method was to contribute to the social inclusion of different marginalized groups of young people and reduce social distance of the citizens towards people from disadvantaged groups who are a subject of stigma and bias and breaking stereotypes and prejudices. One of the strongest points in this method is that it empowers organisers and their beneficiaries by giving them new skills and giving them opportunity to network with people from various discriminated groups, as well as to continue using this tool in future work. Added value was also part of the common social and cultural heritage from the former Yugoslavia that brought all the positive nostalgic undertone to this partnership and opportunity for young people to learn more about their history and culture.Project envisaged several phases and activities, starting with a kick-off and initial training for the Living Library organisers in Croatia, for representatives from six countries (participants form Kosovo did not get visas), which included a small Living Library (as a way of demonstrating and practicing for trainees). In order to have better outreach and include as many trained people as possible and create a “snow-ball effect”, second training was organised in Serbia for the new organisers from all seven countries, which was followed up by the period where seven Living Libraries were organised in each of the partner countries (and besides trainees, more people were involved in preparing and realization). In the final phase of the project, a short movie about Living libraries was created, as well as glossary where all roles in organizing Living library was explained and able for wider usage. At the end of the project, we have follow up meeting, in Sarajevo, BiH, when we had opportunity to evaluate results and plan next steps. In project (decently and indirectly) were involved about 2700 people:42 training participants, 70 readers/local citizens who visited small Living libraries, organized as a part of the training on Mljet, Croatia and Sremski Karlovci, Serbia; more than 600 participants (Books, volunteers, readers...) in national Living libraries; more than 2000 people that were informed about project, human rights, Living library, through TV shows, radio shows, newspapers, project website, social networks...All activities, video evaluation, and project outputs can be found on the project website https://exyull.wordpress.com/