SayNOphobia

We aimed to help educators integrate an effective treatment strategy easily into their daily drama classes in order to beat prejudices and hatred towards different cultures and ethnicities across Europe. Thanks to the accessibility of technology, results of this project is able to be embedded in a great number of education contexts and reach plenty of students who may easily get bored during long and laborious treatment processes by offering them self training that are short and effective. Our vision was to combat xenophobia in high school students by developing empathy, respect and self expression to gain confidence socially with a combination of forum theatres and micro learning. Forum theatres are a remarkable way of practicing social scenarios and considered as perfect treatment for the perspective change which is clearly the main objective. This project helps students receive confidence, a professional stance and knowledge on taking immediate and effective actions to facilitate Forum theatres while combating xenophobia. The results of this project increases European consciousness towards different cultures and partners will spread it to their countries as key persons to help students find their way successfully in society.

This project produced outcomes that are beneficial for students at the age of 14-18 by having them gain empathy by managing learning environments to help them find their way successfully in society. After they gain important skills to foster empathy and tolerance, students are be able to adopt a new mindset and escape from biases, hatred towards different cultures and people. As a result, they have improved communications, resolve conflicts and social difficulties and will play a proactive role in daily life while searching for new solutions among the members of the community. Our aim was to effectively deal with hatred towards foreigners by facilitating a mindset change in 14-18 year olds through the use of forum theatres and micro learning. Objectives: • to support actions against intercultural problems like racism and social fears in the EU. • to nurture specific skills such as tackling radicalization, expression of feelings and cooperation. • to challenge established perceptions of various cultures and exploring solutions. • to increase awareness on intercultural differences. • to have better results in communication, social relations, international cultural awareness and embracing differences.

The implementation of our project was structured around a series of carefully planned activities designed to achieve our defined objectives. These activities were carried out collaboratively and were executed successfully. Below, we outline the key activities that were an integral part of the project's implementation: 1. Management & Monitoring: utilizing a suite of management tools, we ensured that the project remained on track and outcomes were achieved efficiently, within the foreseen budget. 2. Dissemination & Multiplier Activities: following a detailed dissemination plan, we focused our efforts in the dissemination of project results and main events, aiming to reach a wide audience. In addition, we organized a set of Multiplier events in partner countries, as ultimate dissemination activities. 3. Project results: in order to achieve our project goals, we implemented a set of structured activities which built up on each other, and culminated in concrete project results (Reports, Manuals, Guidebooks, Trainings and E-Portal) 4. Sustainability: since the first stage, the project is aiming to be impactful and sustainable. Thus, a series of activities were set in place to guarantee project sustainability and extended impact.

Our project successfully produced an array of concrete outputs and results, as listed below: 1. Booklet of Good Practices: We conducted thorough surveys to gather data on existing curricula and good practices. Using ICT tools and tailored surveys, we gained insights into antixenophobia activities and identified gaps in current practices. These resulted in a booklet and a Report on Findings. 2. Training Development: We crafted dedicated training programs for both teachers and parents, in a combination of theoretical and practical approaches, which were tested in an organized pilot testing phase, ensuring the relevance and effectiveness of our content and resources. 3. Saynophobia E-portal- It is our eLearning platform where all results will be digitalized for quick access with the combination of Micro learning. Microlearning transmits information through many short courses or modules instead of single long and laborious training. They are perfect ways to reinforce and retain knowledge and facilitate behavior change. 4. Saynophobia Guidebook- With an easy to use innovative guidebook for Forum theatres, everyone can capable of performing several tasks on how to raise awareness about Xenophobia. Quick play scenarios to implement the Forum theater methodology, guidelines and other techniques for gamification to fully engage the participants in a playful way is included in the guidebook in order to maximise the impact and maintain sustainability.