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Description
Socio-political changes in recent years in Poland have made it much more difficult to implement anti-discrimination activities. Public funding for these activities has been practically cancelled – it was only possible from foreign funds (e.g. Erasmus+, EEA, Norwegian funds), which is not sufficient. Therefore, in our project we strengthen our anti-discrimination activities implemented so far in NGOs and offices in the Podlaskie Province, and we are looking for new ways of implementing anti-discrimination education. We address the project to people who have an impact on the worldview of young people and adults: activists, people working in education, culture and public institutions, local governments as well as people who publish on social media and on Wikipedia. Our aim is to give those people the skills to present human rights attractively as a valuable basis for building a worldview and to implement anti-discrimination education as a horizontal standard for their activities. We organise anti-discrimination workshops for those who publish on social media (e.g. YouTube, Wikipedia). According to estimates, between 84% and 91% of Wikipedia editors are men, and only 17.7% of Wikipedia biographies written in English are about women (‘Nature’ 2018, ‘Harvard Business Review’ 2016, ‘Wysokie Obcasy’ 03/2017,11/2020). We provide training on anti-discrimination education for educators. We are developing a handbook for schools entitled ‘Parents’ councils in anti-discrimination education’ and offer mentoring to parents’ councils and teaching staff (50 people). The handbook will be distributed to 2,000 schools in the Podlaskie Province. The beneficiaries of the project are persons working in NGOs (including informal ones) and public institutions, offices in the Podlaskie Province, persons publishing on social media and on Wikipedia, school staff and persons acting in parents'' councils.
Summary of project results
1. Low activity of organizations in the Podlaskie Voivodeship in activities for human rights
2. Little awareness of the situation of minority groups among people creating content on social media
3. Little content on human rights and the situation of minorities on social media
4. Small networking of organizations for which the human rights perspective is important, even though human rights are not their main area of activity
5. Little activity of parents'' councils in schools in the area of promoting human rights and equality 6. Little support for schools in activities to counteract violence motivated by prejudice.
The project was addressed mainly to people from majority groups who influence the worldview of young people and adults, i.e.: activists, people employed in education and culture, public institutions, offices, people publishing on social media and on Wikipedia. Our goal was to provide them with the ability to attractively present human rights as a valuable basis for building a worldview and to implement anti-discrimination education as a horizontal standard of activities, counteracting various stereotypes and exclusions. We organized a development cycle for 12 NGOs and public institutions from the province. Podlaskie, combined with practicing the acquired skills in action. The organizations took advantage of 135 hours of educational meetings and organized training, workshops, and educational trips, one of them developed a strategy for itself, and another organized an Equality March in Białystok. We have established 4 partnerships with organizations from various industries, from Białystok, Wrocław and Toruń, who want to work with us for human rights in the future. We organized anti-discrimination workshops for 9 people creating on YouTube, Instagram and Tik Tok and for 11 people editing the Polish Wikipedia. We posted 5 short films on human rights on YT and IG under the common title "Briefly. About privileges and equal rights". They were prepared in cooperation with influencers who care about promoting human rights. They concern the stereotypical perception of women and people with disabilities, adults living with ADHD, discrimination against fat people and the visibility of transgender people. We implemented the project together with the Egala association, which conducted anti-discrimination training for Podlasie educators and created and implemented an anti-discrimination guide in 10 Podlasie schools with the participation of school communities and people from parents'' councils.
- 24 people took part in workshops building 4 lasting sector partnerships: 1) OWOP - Białystok; 2) Przyjaźń Sztuka, Edukacja Foundation - Wrocław; 3) EPIC Foundation - Toruń, 4) Faros Association - Białystok
- 9 people from social media took part in an anti-discrimination workshop in Białystok
- 11 people from Wikipedia took part in an anti-discrimination workshop in Wrocław
- 50 people from parents'' councils and teaching staff benefited from mentoring in increasing their activity for human rights
- 11 participants of the anti-discrimination training and an additional 9 educators recruited for mentoring after the training. 20 people in total.
- 2,500 schools from the Podlaskie, Masovian and Warmian-Masurian Voivodeships received a guide on the role of parents'' councils in promoting human rights in schools
- 20 people from social organizations participated in the Energy of Diversity program
- 174 people took part in human rights exercises under the Energy of Diversity program, and approximately 700 people participated in the Equality March in Białystok, which was one of the activities under the Energy of Diversity program.
- 33 people - participation in civic cafes - information meetings