Peace Through Colourful Minds

The refugee flows to Europe have greatly increased, putting European migration politics under pressure. The confusion created by a larger than normal flow of asylum seekers, most of them with a Muslim religious background, about which the average EU citizen knows too little, was combined with the fear generated by terror attacks organized by groups which, unfortunately, claim to represent Islam. These were later speculated by far-right politicians and groups for political interests and by mass-media for generating audience. As a result, a large part of EU citizens now reject the idea of refugees settling in their countries and inter-religious conflicts start to appear. Young people from Europe live nowadays in a context of rising extremism. All forms of negative prejudices, attitudes and speeches towards other individuals and communities, be it refugees and migrants, Jews, Muslims and other religious groups, Roma people, sexual minorities (LGBTQ), etc., have also dramatically increased in the last months.

As part of a network of European youth and youth-serving organisations, we are utterly concerned by this phenomenon. Together we want to contribute to the prevention of extremism of all kind by unleashing the impactful potential of peer training, which can doubtlessly help build bridges between antagonistic communities and create peaceful spaces of dialogue. Indeed, peer education enables youth to deal effectively with problems that affect them. The process can be partly social; thereby establishing conditions for young people to explore new frontiers; helping to solve problems; and letting people in positions of authority gain a better understanding of the point of view of youth and consider them as equal part of the solution.

To achieve this aim, our objectives are the following:
1. To equip 30 youth and youth workers through 2 x 6-day training activities to raise awareness about the complexity of diversity and to tackle discrimination, exclusion and extremism;
2. To provide youth and youth workers with competences (knowledge, skills and attitudes) and a certification to facilitate discussions and lead workshops about anti-discrimination with their peers;
3. To prevent various forms of extremism among young people through the projects initiated by the peer trainers after their trainings;
4. To promote the powerful impact of youth-led peer education projects on the integration of vulnerable groups.