‘YCreate: Voices for respect, celebrating difference and tackling hate' is a transnational, cross-sectoral Strategic Partnership for Creativity in the field of Youth. The focus of YCreate is on equipping young people - and the youth workers who support them in a range of non-formal and 'out of school' youth work contexts - to counteract hate speech and behaviour, disinformation and misinformation targeted at minorities and vulnerable communities - through creative, arts-based and participatory activities that foster active citizenship and socially responsible actions.Hate Speech (HS) is defined by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation 97/20 as any form of expression that spreads, incites, promotes or justifies forms of hatred based on intolerance. UNESCO (June 2020) considered COVID 19 an information crisis that resulted from high quantity of misinformation available and the low capacity to understand its veracity. Unsubstantiated online information during the pandemic has led to a rise of hate speech and hate crimes targeted against minorities and vulnerable groups. This is a social challenge exacerbated by the Covid19 pandemic - UN General-Secretary, António Guterres, appealing to address hate speech, stressed that “We must act now to strengthen the immunity of our societies against the virus of hate” , highlighting that “the pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering.” Yet the Covid-19 crisis has raised alert, yet again, on the invisibility and absence of opportunities for youth from decision-making processes on matters that directly affect their lives. The YCreate methodology focuses on three tiers of participant. First, 20 youth workers and tutors from non-formal education, training and youth stakeholders with community arts and cultural sector grassroots organisations will work together transnationally to develop new participatory and learning methods on issues of counteracting hate speech and misinformation through cultural practice. Second, 50 young creatives – performers, writers and aspiring producers – aged 14-21 are capacitated and trained to act as youth leaders and mentors to their peers, addressing issues of respect, celebrating difference and tackling hate through music in a variety of genres, songwriting, drama and dance. Third, 500 children and young people, at school or in youth work settings aged 11-18 are empowered through the YCreate approach to find their own voices through sketches, songs, animations and participation designed to combat hate speech and misinformation through intercultural dialogue and exchange. Through this process, the partners will prepare new contents for testing and validation with the target groups, capturing the experiences in the UK, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Greece and Italy to produce three brand new Intellectual Outputs:- IO1 YCreate Development Curriculum Programme - improving the competences and skills of European youth workers, tutors, facilitators and community artists to empower young creatives as peer mentors counteracting hate speech and misinformation through artistic and creative participatory action- IO2 YCreate Peer Mentoring Community Action Toolkit - guidance and resources for and co-designed by young creatives – performers, writers and aspiring producers –to act as youth leaders and peer mentors. It will enable them to be innovators in cultural and artistic community interventions with children, pupils and youth, counteracting hate speech, behaviour and misinformation towards minorities and vulnerable groups- IO3 YCreate Crisis Communication Online Human Library - this output has at its core the human library concept bringing it to the digital environment by creating an OER platform for knowledge exchange and good practices in contexts of crisis.Ultimately, reinforced by a comprehensive programme of dissemination, its longer-term results are aimed at equipping Europe’s young people - and the youth work and educational organisations that support them in a range of non-formal 'out of school' youth work contexts as well as with teachers in schools - with innovative, collaborative practices and resources to counteract hate speech, behaviour and disinformation, online and offline, through creative, arts-based, social responsible actions. Therefore, the title of YCreate reflects the 2 main pillars upon which YCreate is built:- Artistic and creative practices as engines of change: ‘Why Create?’ - realising the potential of artistic and creative practices expressed by youth as catalysts of social inclusion, innovation and social change. - Creative youth as agents of change in the community: ‘You Create’ – addressing the need to empower young people through opportunities for cultural and artistic participation, for active citizenship and commitment towards community action.