TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Joakim Arnøy
The training course aimed at developing the competences of youth workers and educators to work with young people to develop counter and alternative narratives to hate speech based on the manual ‘WE CAN’.
The objectives of the project were:
- To develop participants’ competences to use counter and alternative narratives to combat hate speech;
- To develop participants’ competences to use the manual ‘We CAN’;
- To develop proposals for off-/online initiatives to integrate counter and alternative narratives in the European and national initiatives to combat hate speech;
- To strengthen the response of national campaigns and programme partners to hate speech through education for human rights and democracy by making use of counter and alternative narratives;
- To increase expertise of EEA Grants/Norway Grants, EWC and the Youth Department of the Council of Europe to support its partners in using counter and alternative narratives;
- To reflect on the use of the manual and develop further inputs for improvement.
The training was funded by EEA/Norway Grants, and was open to participants from all countries eligible within this grant scheme. The target group was youth workers, campaign activists and educators working actively with young people on combating hate speech through awareness raising and educational work.
The training consisted of role play and simulation, discussion groups, brainstorming exercises, work groups developing counter and alternatives to hate speech, demonstrations of concrete tools and methods relevant to produce or spread narratives, and more.
This pilot training was the first of its kind hosted at Utøya. The venue provided a very powerful learning arena, and the content of the training was intense. The feedback given by participants in an anonymous, written feedback form was positive, and there could well be further editions of the training.
My role was as junior trainer. I planned, prepared and facilitated several sessions or parts of sessions, and rendered assistance to the other trainers involved. I've also been involved in assessing and evaluating the training.