Survey Report "Youth against extremism and radicalization"

I. INTRODUCTION This report presents primarily the analysis of the data col­lected via online surves conducted as follow up part of project“YAER”-Youth agains extremism and radicalization. The project was cofunded by Erasmus + program and coordinated by Active youth team.

The main focus of the project was the important social challenges of Europe such as radicalization and extremism and the role of youth. The project focused on the effect directly on young people and the public, not just on the participants, namely by addressing a topic that is not spoken in school, which, although it gets threatening in size for Europe, not enough measures are taken, and even more - Young people are put aside from it.

The main project objectives were: -to explore the process of radicalization-its roots, effects on society,ways of reruting, role of media and fake news -to increase the media literacy of participants -to help youth understand how extremist movements thus decrease the risk of youth radicalization -to learn about hate speech as a tool used for spreading propaganda and recruiting Participating countries: -United Kingdom -Spain -Bulgaria -Italy Profile of the Participants of the Study The project reached a diverse group of people from the 4 countries. The survey reflect the skills, knowledge and experience accured by the 36 participants in the youth exchange activity.

II.METHODOLOGY The Questionnaire was conducted online using a self-administered questionnaire that was available through an open-access link from till 30 November 2021. A total of 37 participants from the four countries took part in it. Respondents were not asked to provide their names, addresses, or contact information in the questionnaire.

The survey was conducted online and could be completed in multiple sessions. A typical respondent spent no more than 4 minutes to complete it. The questionnaire was created using EUSurvey platform, an European Commission's official survey management tool, launched in 2013 and distributed to participants through the partners. The design and development of the survey was based on combination of closed (single and multiple choice questions) and open-ended questions was used to collect comprehensive and meaningful data. Completely openended questions allowed the research team to probe more deeply into their needs and issues. Thus, this provided new insights, brought to light new examples or illustrations, and allowed for different interpretations.

The Questionnaire was prepared by Active youth team in English, with inputs from all project partners.

III. KEY FINDINGS 1. Gender The widely held perception that female participants were in the majority for Erasmus + project involvement, surprisingly was also supported by the project Youth against extremism and radicalization project Survey. In fact, the first finding of our survey showed that 54% or 20 of the respondents are female and 46% or 17 male participants. The data implies that both female and male are interested in the topic however female participation is little bit higher.

2. Country of residence The survey was extensively disseminated among young people involved in the youth exchange. As expected all young people were coming from partner countries : Bulgaria 28% or 10 people, UK– 24 % or 9 people, Spain 24 % or 9 people, Italy 24 or 9 people.

Italy 24.3%

United Kingdom 24.3%

Bulgaria 27%

Spain 24.3%

3.Age group The attached below represents the age profile of participants that took part in the questionnaire. The majority of respondents are from 2 main age groups which are the following: -18-25 with 24 answers or 65% -26-30 with 10 answers or 27% -Over 30 years old with 3 answers or 8% The data implies that big majority of respondents are in the age range of 18 – 25 (65%), thus belonging to the target group that the project aims to Over 30 years capacitate. old 8.1%

26-30 years old 27%

18-25 years old 64.9%

4.How useful was the project ‘’Youth against extremism and radicalization’’ in terms of your personal development With this question we wanted to measure how beneficial the project was. Moreover, the majority of respondents-19 which is more than 50% claim it was useful and 17 claim it was totally useful which shows us that the content, discussions and information acquired was suitable for the particular group and they have benefitted from the project fully.

20

15

10

5

0

Totaly useful

Useful

Neutral

5.What was the most empowering session for you during the activities?

That was an open session thus each participant had to answer individually so they were of course various answers according to everyone's personal experience. However, the majority of the respondents claim the one of the most useful activities during the project were Extremism and radicalisation, How to recognize Radicalization and Roots and Branches.

6.After the youth exchange ‘’Youth against extremism and radicalization’ you are?

At this question the participants only had the chance to check 2 options which mostly correspond to their experience of the mobility. The most common answer that the majority of participants -60% claim they feel more competent and empowered to make a change in their local communities which was also one of our main aims-not only to inform, but to transform through empowering the participants to act after by realizing their own power for creating social change. The other major answer chosen by about 50% of respondents is related to participants feeling more open minded towards European multiculturalism which shows that apart from the content and competence set acquired during the project, participants also developed their intercultural competences and awareness. About 35% of the participants also claim they feel more willing to fight against any forms of social injustice which also relates to them being not only educated by the project but also empowered to act 60 upon further.

40

20

0

A

B

C

D

E

7. How do you evaluate your learning progress in terms of the knowledge and competence around the topic/before and after the project/?

This question is really important for the team to determine the progress of the knowledge and skills set of the participants comparing before and after the mobility. For this purpose an individual self assessment was done from each participant before the mobility mentored by the group leaders. During the mobility they had daily evaluations to help them track this progress.

Moreover more than 50% of participants/21 people/ claimed they did not have almost any knowledge and experience on the topic and they acquired it through the exchange. On the other hand 11 of them claim they increased their level of knowledge with up to 60%. Thus it again shows that the project managed to offer great learning platform for the chosen participants and contributed to increasing their learning on the topic.

About 20-40 increase 5

Completely 21

About 40-60% increase 11

8.Do you feel more aware and competent how to prevent/combat youth radicalization?

This is also a rather essential question to determine whether the project was indeed useful for participants and there is some clear change that would led to their further involvement in preventing/combating activities. It is important to highlight that the majority of participants-26

of them claim they absolutely feel more competent on how to tackle youth radicalization however 9 of them only to some extend and last only 2 participants are not sure about it.

Not sure 5.4%

To some extent 24.3%

Absolutely yes 70.3%

9.Did I fulfill my personal learning goals during the project?

Apart from project goals, we also defined the individual learning goals of participants which were equally important to be achieved. With the help of mentors they were able before mobility to determine those goals and trough support and mentoring provided during mobility to track this progress and plan their learning journey. The majority of participants-33 of the claimed the project managed to fulfill their predetermined learning goals which is important and once more highlights the high quality learning outcomesToof the project. some extent 4

Yes to full extent 33

10.Did you personally do some actions to follow up the project and/or share your experience with peers/local community?

Here again we put an open question to let participants share the engagement and involvement after the mobility as this is very important element for the project team. Almost all participants claim that they all had informal talks with their friends and peers around the topic in a form of informal discussion where they shared their experience and what they have learnt during the mobility. Another common way of follow up action was writing a final article from each team to be shared and published by partner organizations. From some participants from Italy we got to know they took part in a show in ANG youth radio of their sending organizations where they spoke in Italian about their journey and learning outcomes. The Bulgarian participants shared their organized a meeting in local school with 28 students from 9 till 12th grade. A participant from UK shared she organized a workshop on intercultural communication and stereotyping using Problem tree methodology. One of the Bulgarian participants also shared she organized short presentation of the project through Zoom during one of her online classes in university in front of her 15 colleagues. Another participant from Italy shared she organized a informative workshop about youth radicalization with 10 participants from her yoga group.

The current survey is created as outcome of project "Youth against extremism and radicalization" co funded by Erasmus + program of European Commission.

The content reflect only on the views of the author and the National Agency and European commission cannot be held responsible for its content.