Connect: the Training Course against hate speech

“CONNECT – Countering Online Hate Speech through Youth Work” Training Course will
address and transform online hate speech in a safe and transformative way. Through the joint
efforts of the 10 organizations involved, Training Course aims to equip 30 youth workers and
educators from the EU (Italy, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece) and Neighboring Partner
countries (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine) with necessary skills, knowledge and
tools to support young people’s fight against online oppressive narratives, propaganda and
hate speech.

Where: Dilijan, Armenia
When: 18-26 April 2022

PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS
This is a Training course for YOUTH WORKERS only!

– Age: 18 to 30
– Fluent in English
– Resident of one of the participating countries
– Available for the whole duration of the Training

Hate Speech is experienced daily by many young people across Europe. With the development
of social networks, the number of cyber-bullying and cyber-harassment cases has increased,
increasing the risks to democratic order and creating concerns among young people and youth
organizations. While there are some efforts taken and legal regulations adopted by the
governments across the world to defend the online space, there is still a lack of internet literacy
and online skills provision to young people and professionals who work in the field of youth.
Along with various educational programs and courses that help young people to combat
radicalization, there is a of lack programs that develop the ability of young people to
communicate safely on the Internet, to avoid illegal and harmful content and to counter online
hate speech and extreme propaganda.

Online hate speech causes traumatic experiences among the young people, such as low selfesteem, anxiety, sleeping disorders, feeling fear and isolation, which in worst cases leads to
suicide. On a wider level, hate speech often leads to normalization of discrimination and
intolerant behaviors, for example, considering hateful comments as jokes, becoming
indifferent to calls of violence, covering hateful content under the “freedom of speech” or even
accepting that hate speech is normal because it is uncensored and used repeatedly. In many
societies, sponsored hate speech leads to wider environment of polarization and internal
societal conflicts.

What are you waiting for?

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