Preventing violent extremism on the internet with positive mindset

Our vision is to prevent or mitigate the occurrence of violent/aggressive speech and bullying on the internet with the education and promotion of a positive mindset. We will provide our youth workers, leaders and young adults with the methods, tools, and guidance necessary to achieve our objective.

The problem of starting bullying or being involved in bullying:

When it comes to social media, it’s no big secret that cyberbullying is prevalent, particularly among teens and young adults. It’s too easy to bully and say whatever they want to each other from behind the safety of their usernames and devices. When an individual’s identity is not stable, his/her attempt at intimacy may lead to isolation and attempts at intimacy become desperate attempts showing bullying and harassment.

Our solution

Applying positive psychology and fostering a positive mindset. Positive psychology is a scientific study of what makes people thrive and focuses on behaviours that can lead to a more optimized frame of mind to lead to more practical actions, much like cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). But compared to CBT, positive psychology focuses more on what makes already-functional; it focuses on strengths instead of weaknesses (Martin Sellingman, Father of modern positive psychology – Positivity improves life, working place, family and society as a whole.

Expected results of the project

MINDSET educational program which has a mission to prevent cyberbullying before it happens by fostering a positive mindset within people. MINDSET educational program promotes positive psychology, fostering positive thinking, empathy and a positive mindset.

MINDSET train-the-trainer program is going to help facilitate the training of our youth trainers according to the developed educational program, adding specific techniques, methods and tools.

MINDSET guidebooks for youth workers for having permanent guidance in paper and electronic form – a step-by-step guide book for youth workers and young adults to help build and foster a positive mindset within people. We will also create and develop a website that will offer information on how to promote a positive mindset in general and how to combat cyberbullying. We plan on doing so by collecting various cyberbullying stories from our partnering countries.

Our main Objectives

Identifying young women’s challenges in becoming leaders in partner countries and understanding how to address them during the first five months of the first year (research and gender assessment).
By the end of the first year, we aim at having increased men’s involvement in the process of women’s empowerment and identified 20 (5 per partner country)positive masculinity figures to support the project and challenge traditional sexist stereotypes in their communities (gender assessment, training and e-courses).
To improve the qualifications and competencies of 5 youth workers in each partner country by the end of the first year in order to better support women’s leadership (e-courses and training).
To make it easier for 20 women from each partner country to enter the labor force by August 2023. (internship programme, job shadowing, training and e-courses).
By the end of the second year, partner countries should have a better understanding of young women’s leadership and gender equality (3 local events, 1 career fair, e-courses, mediatic dissemination).

Furthermore, the project addresses many of the general call’s objectives:

raising the capacity of organisations working with young people outside formal learning: partner organisations will improve their knowledge and competencies to advance women’s leadership.
promote non-formal learning activities in Partner countries, especially targeting young people with fewer opportunitiepromote non-formal learning activities in Partner countries, especially targeting young people with fewer opportunities, with a view to improving the level of competences while ensuring the active participation of young people in society: the project mainly targets young women who, because of their gender and fewer opportunities, struggle to enter the marketplace.
support the development of youth work in Partner countries, improving its quality and recognition: six youth workers from each partner country will be trained to support women’s leadership and advance their learnings to achieve a major impact in the field of youth work..
foster cooperation across different regions of the world through joint initiatives of four countries (Italy, Lithuania, Albania, and Bosnia Herzegovina) with different cultures and gender issues.
enhance synergies and complementarities with formal education systems and/or the labour market: the ultimate goal of the project is to promote women’s leadership and facilitate their access to the labour market.

Partners

Coordinator: Caribbean Education and Culture Foundation Sindesmos Sistima Kai Genia
Partner: JumpIN Hub – Associação para a Inovação e Empreendedorismo Vrijeme Zenica
Partner: Association For European Cooperation Development And Communication
Partner: Prisms
Partner: Aydin Valiligi
Partner: High on Life
Partner: SMART IDEA