The Story Co-Op Project

The Story Co-Op Project will empower young refugees, asylum seekers and migrants with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to tackle hate speech and racism in the media, giving them the platform and resources to become advocates and media spokespersons for their own communities.

The Story Co-Op Project is a new Erasmus + funded project that SCOOP are a partner organisation for, alongside six other partners across Europe:

  1. IGAM (The Research Centre on Asylum and Migration), Ankara, Turkey
  2. The Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin, Ireland
  3. Greek Forum of Refugees, Athens, Greece
  4. Ravdanur, Gaziantep,Turkey
  5. OneBridge, Verona, Italy

Racism, violence and discriminatory ethnic profiling are commonplace in Europe, and the media plays a huge role in this, often representing displaced people as a threat to host countries. Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are given limited opportunities to speak about their experiences and suffering, which contributes to false narratives, hate speech and racism – the Story Co-Op Project aims to change this discourse. 

The youth-led project will engage young displaced people to improve their presence and visibility in the media, providing them with the skills and resources to dismantle the discriminatory attitudes to help reduce prejudice and promote cultural diversity in hosting countries. The project will see co-creation between young displaced people and professionals working in media, to develop innovative approaches and resources to tackle widespread discrimination and hate speech, and promote social inclusion and self representation. 

The Story Co-Op Project Consists of Five Interrelated Outputs

Each output responds to the 2020 UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech. This includes the key principle: new generation of digital societies, empowered to recognise, reject and stand against hate speech, and refugees’ participation in the shaping of policies or programmes. The five outputs include:

  1. “PRESS IT” – A research project and e-book which will act as a toolkit to inform media professionals on media ethics, to explore how refugees and asylum seekers are reported in the media, and highlight rights-based journalism practices.
  2. “PRESS PLAY”- Documentary theatre play that will draw on ethics and practices for journalism to include voices of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in the media to better inform public debate.
  3. “PRESS UPS” – Training handbook that will provide professionals with the skills needed to train young refugees and asylum seekers in media skills, self-representation and rights activation to become advocates and spokespersons for their communities.
  4. “PRESS ON” – Digital tool for the community in the form of a newsgame which will gamify media interview scenarios to explain the complexity of refugees’ lives, to help avoid the generalisation and oversimplification of their experiences.
  5. “PRESS FORWARD” – From practice to policy: a policy document outlining the findings of the project with a compilation of recommendations for NGOs, youth led organisations and the media/media professionals.

To keep up to date with The Story Co-Op Project, check out their Instagram page.