Description
The objective of the project is to promote multiculturalism, fight hateful stereotypes of minorities, and fight verbal aggression, especially online hate speech. The project will be addressed to young people aged 13-16 in the city and county of Nowy Sącz. We are planning 10 groups of youth leaders who will attend workshops on the cultural diversity of the region and the benefits of peaceful co-habitation of different traditions and cultures. Young people will design and implement their own activities in schools and in the local community: campaigns against intolerance, verbal aggression and online hate speech. We will start an online portal presenting workshop scenarios, campaign reports and reports from hate speech monitoring on local websites. The Partner, the Hordaland region, Norway, will share their experience with similar projects and make an evaluation of the project once completed.
Summary of project results
"The Minority Report developed by the Local Knowledge Foundation in collaboration with New Media Research Centre of Collegium Civitas in the spring of 2011 has revealed 85,000 incidence of racism, homophobia and xenophobia. Apparently, most spontaneous online statements made by Poles about minorities constitute hate speech. The Nowy Sącz area has two minorities: the Roma and the Lemko. Much of the hate speech is directed against the two groups. Research confirms that verbal aggression is one of the biggest issues in schools. Strangely enough, young people rarely recognise their behaviour as aggressive and have limited ability to empathise with the victims. The objective of the project was to educate young people about the cultural diversity of the region with a view to preventing hate speech against the local minorities. As a result of the project, 50 students have learned about the culture of local minorities and have used ways of recognising and counteracting hate speech in awareness campaigns against youth cyber-violence. The project delivered workshops for 50 youth leaders. Young people conducted 10 awareness campaigns about the mechanism and impacts of intolerance and made 10 interventions against intolerance and hate speech incidents. An online portal has been launched that provides coverage of the project and there have been 27 publications in local media and 22 online publications on lepiejzrozumiec.pl. Project beneficiaries include students and teachers in middle schools in County Nowy. The Partner, Hordaland County Council, Bergen, shared its experience and best practice in counteracting intolerance, discrimination and hate speech. The Partner was consulted online about the activities planned by youth in their campaigns. Innovative youth engagement techniques were applied based on the Partner's experience."
Summary of bilateral results
The bilateral funds contributed to strenghten cooperation between the grantee and Norsk Folkehjelp. 3 leding teachers took part in a study visit in Bergen and learned how to lead workshops using the innovative techniques Diversity and Dialog, Human Library. They presented their knowledge during the first workshops oth the project LZNZ and used some elements while working with their groups of young leaders. During their visit in Poland the partners met the groups of young leaders who presented them the project activities. The group that performed the most effective and innovative activities went for a study visit to Bergen. As the result of the contest the groups tried harder and achieved much better results. The cooperation with the Norwegian partner drew more attention to the grantee’s activities within the project and contributed to its visibility. The result of the last study visit of partners in Poland was presenting the problem of Roma minority in the region and the hostile approach of local teenagers towards accepting migrants in Poland. The grantee has decided that the next future project will be linked with these topics.