"How ""micro"" can aggression be?"

<< Background >>During the dissemination of a previous Erasmus+ strategic partnership (“Arguments Against Aggression” (2018-1-DE02-KA204-005060)), and especially during discussions in the multiplier events, all partners noticed a strong interest of stakeholders, especially from the public service sector, to not only focus on hate speech as such, but also cover areas which can be defined as micro-aggression. Many studies have found that micro-aggressions have a significant negative impact on people’s mental and physical health. And while micro-aggression has been a known concept within the academic world, there is also a very practical need to raise a broader awareness among European citizens. All of us need to be trained and better prepared to deal with micro-aggression and other subtle but powerful forms of discrimination that impact marginalized populations, whether it is as a perpetrator, victim or by-stander. This is especially important for all those who are working in public positions, e.g. civil servants, teachers, youth workers, etc. Our project will raise awareness and provide European citizens with a hands-on guide and catalogue consisting of strategies, approaches, interventions and training materials to address micro-aggressions.<< Objectives >>We wanted to raise awareness to the topic of micro-aggression and expand the current (mainly academic) conceptualization of micro-aggression. Also we wanted to equip European citizens (especially those working in the public sector) with practical knowledge and skills to handle micro-aggression and promote inclusion, diversity and fairness in their communication with marginalized groups e.g. based on gender, age, ethnicity, religion, beliefs, sexual orientation or disability. << Implementation >>With this project, the partnership had the unique chance to not only develop the outputs that are described in the next section, but also to raise awareness on micro-aggression among stakeholders in the countries of the partners.To this end we:• Created a strong visual project identity and branding consisting of a recognizable logo and use of colors and layout • Created a project website in English and in each of the partnerships languages, which links to social media, in order to continually inform the public • Produced several flyers and newsletters over the course of the project containing a descriptions of the project and its outcomes, project milestones and project activities in English and in each of the partnerships languages. Participated in monitoring conferences of the National Agency • Organized several meetings over the course of the project with stakeholders and other people working in the public-sector such as teachers and youth workersIssued press releases with information about the project aims and relevance for the public, shortly before the start of the implementation and multiplier events. • Organized multiplier events with stakeholders and people working in the public sector in each of the partnerships countries. << Results >>In order to reach the aforementioned objectives, the completed tangible outputs and project results are: • A Catalogue illustrating the most common examples of micro-aggression and unconscious bias;• A practical and user-oriented Guide which includes Training Resources focused on raising awareness/learning to recognize micro-aggression, dealing with micro-aggressions when they occur and moving forward after micro-aggression happened;• A collection of real and personal experiences of micro-aggression, presented in a story-telling manner, as a addition to the cataloge and guide; • An Online e-platform and mobile application to provide immediate and easy access to aforementioned materials;• Not only textual but also several visual and a auditory versions in the form of podcasts and animations of our materials to accommodate all kinds of preferences and needs of all kind of people;All of these products are available in English as well as in all languages of the partnership, i.e. in Dutch, German, Italian, Slovene, Slovak and Greek. To achieve sustainability we guarantee easy access to all of these project results for at least five years after the end of the project, i.e. until 2028. The multilingual project website (www.microaggression.eu) provides details of the project and the partnership.