The Municipality of Uri (MU) will develop a practical seminar "Humour and Hate Speech. Can you tell the difference?" as well as a training course "The Language of Satire: Potentialities and Misuse. Rules of Engagement for an Inclusive Communication" in the context of the project " Are Youth Kidding? ". MU is going to involve 36 youth workers/leaders in two interrelated and interconnected events with the twofold purpose of engaging: - Youth leaders interested in the issues addressed and in their implications on promotion of tolerance, social inclusion and cultural dialog - Youth workers involved in communication and dissemination sharing the concern for balancing attention to innovative strategies and instruments of communication (i.e. satire on social networks) with requirements of non discriminatory and responsible communication. The practical seminar "Humor and hate speech. Can you tell the difference?" will involve youths aged 18-35, preferably interested in the themes of satire and/or communication. The goals we set for the seminar can be summarized as follows: - To empower youth leaders with tools to master satire as a method for transmitting values and ideas. - To sensitize youth leaders on the themes of non discriminatory speech and inclusive communication. - To stage the ground for an encounter between different cultural sensibilities on the issue with youths as the central actors of exchange and mediation. - To elicit a dynamic of dissemination within national organizations reaching out to youth operators on the field thereby strengthening organizational sensibility on the issue as well as organizational capacities. The training course "The Language of Satire: Potentialities and Misuse. Rules of Engagement for an Inclusive Communication" will concern youth workers aged 18+ involved in the fields of communication and dissemination. The seminar will build on training administered in the previous activity. More in detail, youth leaders who took part in the latter seminar are expected to produce a Comic dealing with the issues of humor and social inclusion/non discrimination. In order to acquire a first feedback on dissemination outcomes, each national group will have to prepare a specific report on how their organizations elaborated the experience of the previous seminar (communication, training, policy implementation etc.) The aims of the aforementioned seminar are: - To provide youth operators operating/involved with different roles in the field of communication/dissemination with the knowledge and methods to engage in inclusive and non-discriminatory communication. - To endow participants with an understanding of how satire might undergo a distortion for discriminatory or hate purposes as well as produce the same result through a careless use. - To enhance integration of activities among participant organizations, sharing of best practices as well as set the ground for eventual follow-ups in the same field with a view on widening the net of actors interested and involved in initiatives in this field (other NGOs, local communities, network of experts etc.). The objectives of “Are Youth Kidding?” can be summarized as follows: - Promote sensibility towards sensitive and non-discriminatory communication in the realm of satire through the arrangement of an event characterized by a multicultural attendance. - Provide youth workers embedded in communication and dissemination networks with necessary tools and attitudes to be aware of satire’s potential in the context of modern dissemination instruments (i.e. social media) as well as of the detrimental effects produced by misuse of satire’s techniques combined with viral dynamics of distribution and diffusion. - Enact a process of participative elaboration of shared principles, rules and regulations for a non discriminatory, non derogatory approach to satire. The final product of the seminar will be a practical manual on inclusive communication in satire. “Are Youth Kidding” is an instrument to a set of problems and dilemmas posed by the present reality at every level: - Increasing multiculturalism is often accompanied by frictions or outright discrimination, whose likelihood and virulence is strongly influenced by an irresponsible use of language. - The development of modern social media has removed most barriers to individual equal access to the general public. However, lack of awareness and professionalism by many of those engaged in modern viral communication often works in the direction of inflaming conflict and discrimination against particular groups. This is particularly true in the case of satire which, by virtue of its inner logic of circumventing established limits and taboos, is particularly prone to such distorsions. - We see an huge potential in satire as a tool of active citizenship as well as a powerful instrument of minorities’ rights advocacy. The development of such potential requires an education on its correct use.