Add_Tag_Protect_Respect-Brochure

ADD, TAG, PROTECT, RESPECT! - a brief presentation of the project Introduction ADD,TAG,PROTECT,RESPECT is a youth exchange between 27 february-2 march 2018 that was held in Busteni, Romania with 42 participants from 8 countries: Bulgaria,Spain,Italy,Latvia,Greece,Estonia, Poland,Romania and includes 19 youngsters with fewer opportunities.

The organizing association was ODEN Association – Romania, and the project was financed thorough the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission.

The context is connected with increasing of electronic violence and the fact that youngsters that use social networks don't have enough competences to protect efficient and became victims being affected at physical, mental and social level.

The aim of the project was to increase responsibility of youngsters to understand the danger represented by social networks by offering alternative and efficient to prevent and eliminate electronic violence The objectives were : -to offer for 34 youngsters and 8 leaders from 8 countries a common space for 10 days to reflect on a better understanding of cultural diversity and act on problems generated by cyber-bullying -increase awareness of threatens from social networks by identifying causes and effectsand risks of cyber-bullying -identify physical,mental and social effects of cyber-bullying and increase self confidence of youngsters to discover and offer new solutions of intervention -promote to youngsters nonformal education methods,especially world school debate ,theter and video creation to develop new competences in prevention,reducing and eliminate hate and cyber-bullying The activities were for preparation, introduction and getting to know each other, trust and team building, presentation of participants and organizations, introduction of Erasmus + programme and youthpass certificate, cultural visits in Busteni and Prahova Valley region, intercultural evenings and thematic evenings or at youngsters disposal. There were 5 thematic workshops for presentations of researches and introduction of terminology, 4 video creation workshops to prepare 7 movies, then a intermediary workshop to explain the method and a debate tournament with 8 teams that was played in 5 rounds

and in the end was edited a brochure with conclusions. Besides there were transversal activities for visibility, management and monitoring.

The methodology was based on nonformal education and consisted in games, presentations, debates, role plays and simulations, theater, video creation, workshops, visits, ”world school debate “ competition.

Results of the project are a brochure, 7 movies from video workshop,1 video from theater workshop nr. 5 and 1 movie from debate competition, a blog and a final DVD. The disemination was done by all participants through internet and social networks, informations in associations and also by partners in mass media, partnership, on line posting.

Impact of the project was felt at the level of participants by develop of new competences, by a better understanding of cultural diversity and better responsibility to avoid cyber-bullying. At partners and local communities level the impact was felt by presence of youngsters better trained and willing to solve the problems of communities and by getting new methodological tools and new practices to prevent electronic violence.

Sustainability of project and partnership is provided by communication between partners, by a dissemination and exploitation planned by writing new applications together in frame of Erasmus +.

Besides the preparatory activities (knowing each other, team building, introduction into the topic), the main workshop that produced final results were the Video making workshop and the Debate competition. If in the Video workshop the participants had all the freedom of expression and were incouraged to be as creative as possible, in the debate competition the rules are very strict. Of course, the bright side of this method is that the participants can add pos and cons on a topic that we call motions.

Motions used competition:

for

debate

“Access in a social network (Facebook, Instagram etc.) should be done only by using an ID document” (1,3, finals) “The minimum age limit to access Facebook should be 16 years old” (2, semifinals)

Stages of the implementation 1. Knowing each other and team building activities One of the most important, and funny all the same, was the part in which the participants had the opportunity to know each other, to start working in multinational teams, in order to build a good mood for everyone and a team spirit that is one of the main goals of the project.

So, through activities like “My FB Profile”, “Cars, “Drunken Bottle”, “Walk And Talk” helped us to know each other and to build a confidence among the participants. The “City Bound In Busteni” has the role to unite us and meanwhile to have an image of the environment and surroundings.

One of the highlights of this phase was the Eggsercise – in international teams we should build a device to protect an egg from a 5 meters drop… (not suited for children and cardiac people…).

All the activities were full of fun and the participants enjoyed it a lot.

Eggsercise What’s Eggsercise?

In mixed group, with some materials provided (the same for each group), the participants have to build a “device” that would protect an (real) egg from a fall more than five meters high.

It was a big challenge, because the materials were quite scarce (some pieces of A4 paper, two balloons, two wooden sticks, some sticky tape, marker, string.

The rules of the game: 1. PROTECT THE EGG 2. Use only the materials provided 3. Make a promotion/ commercial for your device.

4. Have fun!

City Bound in Busteni and surroundings

What’s about “City Bound?”

In international teams, the participants have to fulfill some tasks: 1. Find three things that you like. Make pictures with it.

2. Find three things that you don’t like. Make pictures.

3. Find a local person that is ready to take a picture with you and to explain the legend of the statue in the front of the Train station.

4. Find the Silva Hotel – meeting point for a group foto.

After that, those who feeled in good shape ( it means everybody) hiked to the Screaming Waterfall and it was a journey to remember. During this roundabout, it was applied the Walk & Talk method – people from different national groups walked and shared different ideas alltogether.

Outdoor activities – Drunken Bottle & Cars

What about Cars & What about Drunken Bottles?

Those were some trust games, with the purpose to make participants more confident and more comfortable with each other.

Cars – is a game played in pairs. In a pair, one person is tha car, walking blindfolded and in the conptrol of the other person of the pair, the Driver. In the beginning of the game they establish some signs that allow the driver to “drive” the car. The main rules are Avoid accidents! & Have fun! After a while, the roles are changing, the car becoming a driver and viceversa.

Drunken bottle – is another trust game. In bigger groups (6-7 people), a Bottle is in the middle of a circle made from the other members of the group.

The Bottle is pushed around as if it is “drunk”. Each member of the group take his turn as “Bottle” in the middle. The rules are: Avoid accidents!, Protect the bottle! & Be responsible!.

Of course, all the participants took those exercises seriously, no accidents occurred and the group dynamics was enhanced a lot!

Day one evaluation The participants were asked to show their feelings about the first day: Thumb up was for “very good”, Thumb on the horizontally was for “so & so” and thumb down was for “bad”. The immage speaks for itself…

2. Introduction in the topic Cyber-bullying: a challenging and very actual topic! Starting from the situation in each country, result of the previous research, going thorough “A Rope Debate”, we could share knowledge, situation, legislation and could identify which are the similarities and the differences in different environments, all connected with the cyber-bullying and solutions of avoiding it.

Rope debate topics to discuss Also, during the “Rope Debate” session we were more into the ethics that should be adopted in the on-line space in order not to harm someone and not to be harmed.

Rope Debate – people in action!

What a Rope Debate means?

During this session, the room was divided in two parts by a “rope” - a symbolic border between two sides: the pro side and the against side, because there were some statements/ motions in discussion. The statements were on the issues connected with electronic violence, cyber bullying and ethics in the virtual space and the discussions

were very intense. You canyourself in the room accordingly with your opinion towards the statement: as far as you are from the “border” (in the pro or against side) as stronger you agree or disagree with the statement. As closer you are to the “border”, you are with mixed opinions. If you are right in the middle, you are indecised – neither pro, neither against the motion. The rules were: 1. Attack the idea not the person!

2. The Mike rule (you can speak only whan you have the microphone handed by the moderator) 3. Be active! - you have to be involved in the discussion and, if an argument convinced you, you can change your position.

Green Drama – posters & role play

What a “Green Drama” means?

Another method used was “The Green Drama”. In this method, small groups create a character either positive or negative concerning the topic.

In mixed teams, the participants should make a portrait of a character connected with the topic. Half of the teams should illustrate a positive character and the other half, a negative one.

After the presentation of the posters and of the characters, each team should put in scene a role play in which the illustrated character should be involved. So, there was characters that were aware/ unaware of the cyber bullying and its consequences. We made posters and we played the roles and it was big time!

The conclusion was that every Internet user should find a balance between information shared and expectations from the other’s information.

And, of course, to be prepared to accept that the social media space is populated with all kind of people, sometimes nice ones, sometimes not..

3. InterGALACTIC evenings!!!

One of the most important aim of the Youth Exchange was to know other culture, customs, and way of life. The Intercultural (but we prefere to name it INTERGALACTIC, because there was areal intercultural exchange) evenings are the very activity to be aware of all those things. During those evenings, each country should promote another one, and each country presented some food, drinks, dances and we can tell that it was a lot of fun!

4. Video making!

That was a highlight of the project! Split in international teams we realized eight videos on the topic of cyber-bullying. Anyone can find it on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/YE-Add-Tag-Protect-Respect_Bu %C5%9Fteni-2018-1912221439019271/) There was a wide range of topics, techniques, duration and, of course, a lot of fun!

Video making process Video making is a great method if you want to take the participants out of the comfort zone and put their creativity at test! With scarce technical meanings they have to shoot and edit a short video on the topic. Even though the participants didn’t have professional cameras (in most of the cases they shoot with the smart phone cameras) or high tech computers for editing, the results were awesome! The secret? Involvement, creativity, good mood, motivation, pleasure to work together – it was the moment when the results of the previous workshops (knowing each other, team building, research activities) were put in the light!

5. Debate time!

In the final part we were introduced in the world of the debate, in the “World Schools Format” and we were confronting our ideas, of course, on the topic.

What is “World Schools” debating format? Two teams of three members (we were four, in order to help people less confident in public speaking and to have a more effective research and case building) debate on a motion, that would be a statement, on a certain topic (in our case, the social media situation). One team, called Government should defend the motion and the other, Opposition, should deny it. There is a panel of Judges (in our case

the group leaders were judges) that decides, based on certain criteria, which team was more convincing.

During the match, each speaker, alternatively from Government side and from the Opposition side gives a speech at the length of maximum five minutes. Those are called “constructive speeches” because during those, speakers comes with arguments, counter-arguments, examples, analysis in order to convince the Judges of the truth of their position towards the motion. The match is closed by the “reply speeches”, one for each team, with the duration of maximum 3 minutes. In the end, the Judges give a decision, who won the debate, and explain it with arguments.

Debate – format, teams & pairing table for preliminary rounds

Even though it was very challenging, and the adrenalin rush was in some cases at maximum, the fair play ans getting along each other (even members of opposite teams) were the words of order.Debating in the prliminary rounds

The big finals was played in the Kalinderu High School in Busteni and students and teachers of the schools attended. The match was between ESTITROPOL and AVENGERS and it was won by ESTITROPOL. But we all think that everyone won both players and public, as the topic was so interesting and of great actuality.

The finalists

Here there are some highlight ideas that we could remark during the competition:  “ Facebook is one of the greatest invention in the world after the wheel “  “Facebook is a private society where all users have a price “  “ Facebook – who can give you a limit ? “  “ Only in 10 % of time you read something useful on facebook .”  “ Facebook can change your life as well as can change governments “  “Facebook is a private society where all users have a price “  “Facebook makes life easier ,powerful “  “Negative sides are closer than we think “  “ You can get addicted to everything “  “Facebook is not the root of all bad things.Life is full of choices .”  “ Every six people are connected to eachother,so use facebook to find your connections ! “  “ Facebook is a wall with good bricks ,but is fragile “  “ People behave different when they know they are watched by others “  “ Face to face not facebook to facebook – this is communication ! “  “ Be positive and facebook will be positive with you ! “  “We are not the people that we are on facebook. “  “ Face your life ,don’t facebook it ! “  “Security system of facebook is not secure “  “ Facebook is media “ Of course the participants focused on Facebook due to its great impact in every youngster life, and the space where the cyberbullying is most common.

Some testimonials from participants Iannis (GR) This project provided us with the tools in order to maintain a responsible profile in social media without exposing ourselves.

We learned that cyberbullying is something that needs to be tackled collectively. Activities in this program taught us that with collaboration and information we can help each other to know how to handle such incidents. It took place a very interesting debate about the use of an ID card in order to access social media and to forbid the use of anonymous accounts. There were really interesting ideas about both topics. We did also a brain-storming process about important issues such as the causes, effects and solutions of e-violence. The effects of e-violence are feeling alone, self harm, social anxiety and depression. Some of the causes were that you can be anonymous and you’re not scared of the consequences and also the fact that usually the victim becomes a bully itself. Some solutions were to have better education about the use of the internet, to avoid anonymous profiles, to make a specific law about cyber-bullying etc. We also did a lot of videos and theatre performances about cyberbullying and most of the times we had to cooperate with people from different countries and a lot of team-bonding activities.

Vangelis (GR) Youth exchange project it was very nice with beautiful activities,nice accommondiation and with respect to vegeterian people.I learn a lot about cyberbulling and feel lucky to participate in this project to disuss about this global problem Thank you for all,Vangelis Martis Gabi (RO) You are taken out of comfort, put in a place with 40 young people, young people with another culture different from yours, another nationality, other ideologies. You, along with these 40 young people, have to work together for 10 days to find solutions to topical issues. The situation described is what happens in a youth exchange, an experience that, in my opinion, besides making you understand in depth a problem of mankind, develops you very personally. This out of the comfort zone makes you brainstorming, makes you

social, develops your general culture, increases your cultural skills, increases your English speaking ability, but most importantly makes you understand and understand another person, the person who can be from all points of view completely different from you. This experience is the step you need to move on to a superior level of personal development.

I recommend all this experience.

Marina (GR) "My first project....I was amazing by how many things were achieved in so few days by some random people...The most strong feeling I had after the project was that I WANTED TO KNOCK MY HEAD AGAINST A WALL FOR NOT HAVING DISCOVERED YOUTH EXCHANGE EARLIER" Conclusions from the organizers part It was a very successful Youth Exchange, and the success was ensured firstly by the participants – a very involved, active, interested, intelligent bunch of young people. They had a lot of fun, but when it comes to work, things were taken very seriously. We invite everyone to check the final products – diaries, videos, impressions etc, and everything can be found on the Facebook group at (https://www.facebook.com/YE-Add-Tag-Protect-Respect_Bu%C5%9Fteni2018-1912221439019271/) Enjoy, and stay on the safe side of the social media!

All together after a great Finals

Thank you for being such a great team!

Bulgaria: Hristo, Olya, Vesela, Angel, Georgi Estonia: Hassan, Henry, Karol, Kristen, Rauno Greece: Christina, Ioannis, Panos, Marina, Vangelis Italy: Lallo, Emily, Chiara, Davide, Martina Latvia: Elgars, Elsa, Ilmars, Paula, Marija Poland: Aleksandra, Aneta, Karolina, Mateusz, Weronika Spain: Alvaro, Diana, Marina, Patricia, Yuriy Romania: Bogdan, Andra, Anastasia, Gabi, Mike, Carina, Florina, Fabi

Visit us at: https://www.facebook.com/YE-ADD-TAG-PROTECT-RESPECT_Bu %C5%9Fteni-2018-1912221439019271/

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.