Preventing violent extremism on the internet with positive mindset

Background The main reason we applied for this project is because we shared common concerns and vision: to prevent or to mitigate the occurrence of violent/ aggressive speech and bullying online (cyberbullying), through education and the promotion of a positive mindset. Our proposal is to apply positive psychology and foster a positive mindset to prevent cyberbullying. Positivity improves life, working place, family and society as a whole. For our project, positive psychology as part of this field will: - Help cope with the effects of cyberbullying - Prevent bullying as action - Prevent online bullying We applied for this project aiming to address the identified needs of Youth Workers & Young People: - To develop a positive mindset in young adults. A positive mindset will improve life and prevent aggressive/bullying actions. The person will experience distinct health benefits, including reduced risk or symptoms of depression, better psychological and physical wellbeing - To help young people to recover emotionally from bullying/cyberbullying by develop a coping mechanism - To help youth workers to be in line with young people's perceptions of online / offline reality - To offer innovative training for youth workers in positive mindset Through our project approach, we truly believe we have successfully addressed the identified needs of our target groups, which will be developed in detail along this report. Objectives By implementing this project we intended to achieve the following objectives: - To develop and foster a positive mindset in young adults. - To help young people to recover emotionally from bullying/cyberbullying by develop a coping mechanism - To help youth workers / trainers to be in line with young peoples perceptions of online / offline reality - To provide tools and materials to youth workers to be able to foster a positive mindset within young people - To raise awareness towards to cyberbullying problem, which is a global phenomenon - To prevent bullying / cyberbullying for occurring as well a violent speech online Indeed, we were able to tackle all the proposed objectives throughout the development and implementation of our project. Implementation Activities undertaken within the project: - Kick-off Meeting of the project (Online) - 2nd Transnational Project Meeting (Online) - LTTA in Malta - 3rd Transnational Project Meeting in Bosnia-Herzegovina - 4th Transnacional Project Meeting in Turkey - 8 Multiplier Events in the Partner Countries - 1 Final Conference in Turkey - Development of the “MINDSET” educational program - Development of the "MINDSET" Trainings - Development of the "MINDSET" permanent guides and OER We must state that all the foreseen activities were implemented successfully, even though we had to adapt the Kick-off and 2nd TPM into virtual events due to COVID restrictions that were set all worldwide and of course affected the beginning of the project. Nevertheless, the project consortium was tireless with their efforts to make it possible to implement all the foreseen activities. These will be explained in detail further in this report. Achievements Our project produced the following results: IO1 - MINDSET Educational Program The main goal of this IO was to prevent bullying on the internet through the development of an educational program for fostering a positive mindset within young people. Throughout this IO, we did a Pan EU survey on currently available training options under the topic and prepared a consolidated report and gap identification analysis. These steps were the foundation for the development of the module structure, educational goals and topics and for the overall development of the educational program. IO2 - MINDSET Trainings We intended to develop a train-the-trainers program for youth workers and lessons for young adults, and to add techniques and tools, usually not present in existing curricula and methodologies like positive psychology, a positive mindset, and fostering empathy. After the development of the Trainings and lessons, we implemented an LTTA where trainers were able to test the results and later implement them in a pilot testing training for young people. IO3 - MINDSET Permanent Guides and OER The main goal of this IO was to present the target groups with the material needed to fight cyberbullying - Guidebooks and OER. Within this IO we also developed the Cyberbullying stories to raise awareness for the cyberbullying problem, and produced infographics with the same intent. Further explanations for the project results and outcomes will be given throughout this report.