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Description
The project is needed due to a growing demand by civil society organizations across the country for innovative forms of involvement of young people as advocates for democratic values and the rights of vulnerable groups and opponents of hate speech. The project aims at boosting the capacity of more than 20 organizations working with young people to use a work model for conflict resolution and development of critical thinking of young people based on theatre techniques. The project brings together 3 civil society organizations (CSOs) from different areas in the country and a community centre working with young people through interactive forms (theatre, debates, youth festivals, etc.) in order to develop and disseminate an innovative methodology called “youth theatre against hate speech” by the partners. The union of partners working with different vulnerable groups of young people, namely the Roma, LGBTI, migrants, drug addicts, etc. will help enrich the methodology. Video lessons and a guide with scenarios for theatre etudes will be developed and used in the training of trainers and the workshops for the development of the network. The partners will boost their capacity as trainers and model promoters and will attract to the network at least 20 new organizations from three regions in Bulgaria (South West, North Central and South East). The target groups of the project are CSOs, community centres and other organizations working with young people. The final beneficiaries are more than 500 young people a year from the respective regions who will be involved in the activities of the CSOs trained under the project. The project outcomes will be documented in a film and disseminated via youth and other information channels. The project offers a possible solution to the problem of hate speech, the latter solution being generated by the young people who will take part in the activities as assistant facilitators, actors, directors and observers.
Summary of project results
The project general objective was to develop a network of organizations working with young people and to increase their capacity for using a model of work for overcoming conflicts and for developing critical thinking in youths through theatre methods. It aimed at capacity development of more than 20 non-governmental organizations from 4 regions of the country to apply innovative models for empowering youths, cultivating democratic values in young people and overcoming hatred towards marginalized groups.
The project was realized in partnership of four organizations from different parts the country, working with youths and developing interactive activities (theatre, debates, festivals, etc.). Within the project, each of the partners focused its activity on the respective vulnerable group: Roma people, LGBTI, migrants, and drug addicts. The result is enriched methodology named Youth Theatre against Hatred and based on the experience of the leading organization Debut Association – Kyustendil, promoted through the developed four video lessons (https://www.youtheatre.org/resources.php). As a result of the methodology a guidebook for educators and theatre groups facilitators - named Theatre Etudes against Hatred - was developed and published online (https://www.youtheatre.org/docs/t-etd.pdf), comprising of 12 case studies to be used as a ground for theatre etudes’ scenarios. The case studies are based on real stories of young people from the vulnerable groups. These main project products were disseminated through organizing and conducting of 12 two-day workshops in the four partner regions – Kyustendil, Sofia, Gabrovo, and Burgas, and the Youth Theatre against Hatred Interactive Forum at the end of the project.
Project website: https://www.youtheatre.org
Project facebook page: Развитие на мрежа-младежки театри срещу омразата
Project partners: Delphi Association for Strategic Management – Burgas; Bilitis Resource Center Foundation – Sofia; "Hristo Smirnenski 1949" Community Cultural Center – Gabrovo.