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Does stranger equals to danger?
Does stranger equals to danger?
Start date: Aug 1, 2016,
End date: Jan 31, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
Does stranger equals to danger? An initiative to develop creative actions by young people, who would like to stand against xenophobia. 35 participants from Austria, Spain, Italy, Greece and United Kingdom creatin an action plan to tackle racism, descrimination and raise awarenes about human rights. This YE will be organized in Trofaiach - a city with 11.190 inhabitants, idyllically situated city in the middle of the country at the southern end of the Eisenerzer Alps, offers an excellent, high level infrastructure with a rich range of sport, culture and tourism. All activities are taking part in Stockschloss, a small castle known as a meeting point for people with different backgrounds, a place to exchange ideas and knowledge.The first Peace Camp in Stockschloss Trofaiach was entitled Youth for Peace and took place in September 2014, the second Let there be Peace in September 2015, both organised by ArtMine. Both projects were successful in raising cultural awareness and have strongly contributed for participants to become more interested in knowing what happens in the world daily, more open-minded and tolerant towards other persons' values and behavior and more aware of social and political concepts like democracy, justice, equality, citizenship, civil rights. However, we have realized that 80% of those interested in taking part in youth exchanges already are open-minded and tolerant. As we would like to address those who are not, with this YE we are focusing less to “educating” participants in the field of human rights and focus more on their ideas and suggestions on how to reach people outside our organizations, who are less tolerant, not interested in European topics or in the politics and not (yet) committed to work against discrimination, intolerance, xenophobia or racism. Whereas the first part of the YE will be built on the following pillars: theory – reality – reasons, whereas we are using non-formal educational methods to educate participants about human rights, in the second part we will focus on being active (as individuals and groups). 30 young and active people, creative minds, will try to develop actions, initiatives and works of art to address human rights, tolerance, diversity and work against racism. Smaller initiatives (performances on the streets, addressing people) will be "tried out" already during the YE, some (postcards and posters) will be part of the dissemination and we hope that bigger initiatives and project ideas for the future will evolve. One YE might not be a solution to the rise of the radical right in Europe, however, during this YE we will work together with participants to develop long-lasting initiatives.Our participants will not only gain knowledge about multiculturalism, human rights, conflict management, they will also have the opportunity to express their creative minds on the topic and get actively involved. They will have the opportunity to plan their activity/action, implement and then receive feedback. They will have the opportunity to discuss and share their ideas with peers and get a constructive feedback so that – once out of the safe environment of the project – they will have enough courage to get active in their local environments. Therefore the project “Does stranger equals to danger?” does not only encourage young people to look together for innovative and creative ways and actions to raise awareness within communities but also empowers them to become self-confident active citizens.