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Hate Speech - Where were you?
Hate Speech - Where were you?
Start date: Aug 15, 2014,
End date: May 14, 2015
PROJECT
FINISHED
Hate Speech - Where were you was a training course taking place in Rustavi, Georgia from 17-25 October 2014. Twenty-four youth workers and youth leaders from 8 countries (Czech republic, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Macedonia, Estonia and Ukraine) went through a process of discovering and understanding the topic of hate speech on social media in the first place, its identifying and prevention.
As the participants of the training course discovered by analyzing their own communities and their own networks, many young people in Europe are targeted by hate and violence because of who they are, where they come from, what they believe it etc. We carried out this project to explore how the youth sector can work with this area of concern in a constructive way and in a way that is easy to implement and carry out in youth organisations and with young people. This training course developed strategies for youth leaders to implement actions and activities in combatting hate and violence in all its forms.
The main objectives of Hate Speech - Where were you training course were: (1) to explore the concepts of hate and violence in all their forms, (2) to understand how we are influenced by and involved in hate and violence in our everyday lives, (3) to reflect on how hate and violence affects the communities our youth organisations are based in, (4) to reflect on how hate and violence impacts Europe and young peoples sense of being European, (5) to develop youth workers competencies in dealing with hate and violence in their work and communities, (6) to develop strategies for involving young people in combatting hate and violence, (7) to develop a sense of European citizenship and a sense of community, (8) to create and develop projects that will be implemented by young people in an active way in society.
To meet the objectives, methods of non-formal education were used with a regard to individual needs and learning styles of the participants. Plenary inputs, theories, small and large group work, self-directed learning, online research, presentations, intercultural exchanges, group building, self-assessment, sharing, experiential learning and self-reflection were all used during the training course, as it was initially planned.
Activities of the training course included No Hate Speech Movement session, Self-Assessment Training and Reflection (STAR) sessions at the end of each day, as well as exploration of phenomenon of hate and an introspective self-reflection on it. The same process with the exploration and reflection on violence, hate and violence issues faced by young people in the communities of the participants, impact of hate and violence on young people..
The outcomes of the training course are:
(1) Broader understanding of hate speech and the concept of violence. (2) Better understanding of the dangers faced by young people. (3) Follow-up activities implemented on the local level by the participants - workshops, film screening, discussion through they had a chance to pass their knowledge and competences onto colleagues as a part of organisational development. (4) One of the outcomes of the project is a new two-phase training course based on the needs analysis conducted by the organizers and partners during the training course that will focus deeply on the youth workers competencies to deal with hateful expressions.
The No Hate Speech Movement is a Europe wide campaign, the participants and the young people they work with at their own organisations were all be encouraged to join it and support it. The training course Hate Speech - Where were you was an outcome of joint work of the trainers team, a result of a long term cooperation of applicant and hosting organisation on the topic of new media.