Project Description

The core aim of the project is to intensify the youth work efforts for peace building and conflict transformation, utilizing mass, alternative and social media. It aims to achieve this objective through the fostering of cooperation and exchanges between youth workers and young people from 4 continents.

Towards the above core aim, the main (general) objectives of the project are defined as:

SKILLS

-To empower youth workers towards using different media in activities targeting peace building

-To encourage youth workers on the use of media as a tool for post-conflict or post-crisis community rapprochement and redevelopment

-To raise awareness over media literacy and capacitate youth workers to train their community in this direction

-To develop skills on reflective structured dialogue and political debating online

-To train youth workers in interfaith and intercultural online dialogue

GOODPRACTICES

-To exchange innovative ideas of schemes on historical reconciliation and memorialization through media

-To draw some joint conclusions on how to better implement the above-mentioned techniques and multiply their impact factor and outreach potential to local communities

-To elaborate on techniques and good practices of peace building through media

-To investigate all possible ways for contributing to truth restoration in issues related to peace and conflict developments

KNOWLEDGE

-To understand in depth the interrelation between violence and propaganda

-To explore ways of fighting online and mass media hate speech, radicalization and censorship

-To augment the level of interaction between peace activists and individuals or entities from war-torn or conflict areas, and thus their knowledge of on-ground realities.

The pattern used for reassuring that all the above-listed will be met, has been matching each of the milestone activities with a number (on average approx. 1-3) of the objectives, so that all of their actions target the development of competences, qualities, knowledge and capabilities that lead to these directions.

The target group of the project is (1) youth workers related to media, peace building or conflict transformation at a local, regional or international level and, (2) (with an emphasis), youth workers that are directly affected by conflict or violence. At a wider scale, there is a less direct but equally profound focus on young people and local communities of the partner organizations, who will be approached through the dissemination phase, online activities (access to e-learning course)

Simultaneously some more specific objectives of the project are: 1) introducing open educational resources, ICT based learning and e-learning in transnational youth work, 2) promoting intercontinental cooperation of youth workers in the field of peace and conflict transformation, 3) promoting the values of ethical journalism, 4) promoting and therefore implementing the projects ideas wider (geographically, conceptually and institutionally).