CO-EXIST is working to raise awareness of the importance of interfaith dialogue in promoting the peaceful co-existence of different faith and religious groups across European society. Our core objective with the CO-EXIST project is to support young people in our communities to engage in citizen journalism, to counter the narratives of other religions that are presented in the mainstream media, and to harness the potential of social media platforms to promote cultural and religious tolerance across Europe. Through our work with young people from different faith communities, all partners are aware of the need to provide a mechanism to encourage interfaith dialogue between religious groups.

Through the CO-EXIST project, partners are responding to this need in our communities, to support young people to find the mechanisms for engaging in and promoting interfaith dialogue, to make European society a more peaceful and tolerant place for people of all faiths and cultures. In many instances, the onus to create a tolerant society for people of all faiths is placed on the State. However, through CO-EXIST, we believe that this sense of European tolerance and unity can be fostered from a grassroots movement which empowers young people to engage in interfaith and intercultural dialogue, to discover the shared values we have, and to foster the potential of citizen journalism, supported through digital and social media tools, so that they can promote tolerant interfaith dialogue across Europe. Disinformation campaigns can weaponise context to create a sense of ‘otherness’ between different cultural and religious groups in Europe, to cause division. Today, social media has largely been used to spread this disinformation and to cause division between groups. Through the CO-EXIST project we are working with young people and youth workers to put the power of social media to good use, by training young people as informed citizen journalists.