Social Media in Action for Peace

Social Media in Action for Peace WHY? Because we believe that: • Social networks are a new and exciting field, which offer a lot of space for creativity, invention and imagination in developing youth led projects; • It would be difficult to convince young people to disconnect and come offline, hence youth leaders might as well learn how to use social networks in order to engage young people; • Peace building is always in need for new initiatives and creative approaches and social networks are a field to be explored; • Social networks bring a new dimension to intercultural learning and international cooperation as a whole. WHAT? The main aim of the project is to develop competences of multipliers to plan and promote youth led peace building projects with high impact on their peers and the local communities through use of social media tools and methodologies. More specific objectives are: • To learn about the background, concepts and strategies of social media and critically and creatively reflect on its advantages and disadvantages; • To reflect on non-formal education and its methods and their applicability within social networks; • To explore possibilities for utilisation of social media for youth activism in the field of peace building; • To facilitate the exchange and the sharing of experiences in the field of youth activism in peace building; • To understand the basic concept of advocacy and its connection to peace building; • To develop creative and attractive ways to apply social media for youth activism, with a special emphasis on peace building; • To design and develop an action plan for use of social media for youth activism in peace building;   FOR WHO? For 26 youth leaders who: 1. are working with other young people in their everyday reality 2. are active on social networks and are interested to explore their use in youth work 3. have knowledge and practice of non-formal education and learning 4. have at least basic knowledge about peace building 5. are interested in developing social media projects for peace building 6. have basic IT skills and are not afraid of experimenting with the computers :) 7. are committed to applying their newly gained skills in their communities and within their respective organisations The training has three integrated learning phases: 1. Introductory phase (preparation for the course) through distance e-learning, starting from August 2oth till the beginning of the residential training course 2. Residential training course, from September 29th to October 7th in Nicosia, Cyprus 3. Follow-up phase through distance e-learning, starting from October 15th to November 15th.