Youth 4 Change

ended

The Roma are the largest and most vulnerable minority group in Eastern Europe (Worldbank 2015). According to the Pew Research Centre's 2017 Study on Nationality, 54% of respondents would not accept a Roma member in their family, 44% would not want a Roma neighbor, 27% would not accept them as citizens of the country. In Hungary and Romania, a significant part of the population is Roma, and the majority of the Roma population lives in segregated conditions. The societies of both countries have disintegrated, and cooperation between Roma and non-Roma is rare, which holds back social inclusion and fosters discrimination and hate speech. Our aim is to strengthen local youth communities, to initiate and implement processes that encourage cooperation between them, and thus to turn their cultural differences into an advantage. In Hungary and Romania, we will model inclusive development with the participation of 14-20 year old Roma and non-Roma youth, involving young people living in segregated settlements and other parts of the settlements. In the process, young people create creative artistic content, about which we make films and promote them in the media with the participation of influencers as part of an information and awareness-raising campaign. In the framework of an action analysis, we examine the input and output attitudes of young people and their changes as a result of project activities, with the involvement of independent researchers. We inform local, national and international decision-makers and the general public about the results and the method. We will develop and disseminate methodologies for formal and nonformal education how young people’s interethnic attitudes and behaviors can be shaped and how creative tools can be used in interethnic topics and in elaborations topics of hate speech/crime and discrimination issues. These materials and methods will be disseminated beside online dissemination also during trainings targeting teachers and youth workers.