<< Objectives >>The project objectives were to:1.Raise awareness about the relationship between emotional intelligence and discrimination among our participants and their local communities.2.Raise awareness about the relationship between emotional intelligence and well-being (with a focus on selfawareness) among our participants and their local communities. In terms of the youth mobility, we aimed to:1.Expand knowledge regarding the components of emotional intelligence2.Develop the socio-emotional skills of our participants, such as emotional awareness and regulation.3.Change the attitudes of our participants towards people outside their own groups by highlighting how emotions can foster discrimination (even when they are unconscious) and exposing how fake news exploit this.<< Implementation >>The main project activity was a Youth Exchange implemented in April 2022 in Sinaia, Romania. During 9 days, young people from 7 countries were involved in 5 learning modules which helped us reach our project objectives. Each learning module had a specific learning goal, as follows:Module 1. Improving youth’s skills of identifying, distinguishing & expressing emotions.This part of the youth exchange focused on helping youth practice emotion identification using several methods (e.g., identifying in a video which shows different facial expressions, discussing the ”wheel of emotions”) and different ways of expressing emotions (e.g., based on roleplays), analyzing the challenges and benefits of each way.Module 2. Improving youth’s understanding of emotions (e.g, what causes them, manifestations), self-awareness, and knowledge regarding the relationship between thoughts and emotions.During this part of the youth exchange, youth discussed what causes certain emotions and how they manifest both biologically and behaviorally. Using reflection and models from cognitive-behavioral psychology, we addressed how our thoughts influence our emotions. The methods included group discussions, presentations, and sharing personal experiences (e.g., thoughts that I have in specific situations which generate negative emotions).Module 3. Understanding the relationship between emotional intelligence and discrimination.During this module we took a close look at the relationship between emotions and behaviors, focusing on how fake news can foster negative emotions which lead to the discrimination of certain groups. The methods used in this module included national teamwork (e.g., drawing stereotypes from their countries) and discussion with the whole groupModules 4. Understanding the relationship between emotional intelligence and personal well-being.This module mostly focused on helping youth identify the role emotional intelligence plays in several life domains (e.g., school, work, family, romantic relationships, friendships) through discussions, presentations, and reflectionModules 5. Understanding and learning emotion regulation strategies.During this module, participants were encouraged to focus on identifying the most useful strategies for dealing with fake news, hateful information from the media, and their personal challenges. The methods included problem solving, roleplay, research, and reflection.Participants were aged between 18 and 29 years old (corresponding to the developmental stage of emerging adulthood), had high interest in the topic of emotional intelligence, were motivated to learn and engage in both personal and professional development, proved willingness to share personal experiences (i.e., specific life situations in which they felt intense negative emotions), and had at least a basic level of English. This general profile also applied in the case of the disadvantaged participants recruited from each of the countries involved in the project.During the youth exchange implementation, participants were involved in the development of project results, such as videos and a card game, which will be detailed in the corresponding section. Following the project, participants got involved in dissemination activities, such as article writing or sharing on social media, which will be detailed in the corresponding section.<< Results >>As also expected in the project application, the highest impact was on the participants due to the strong focus on self-awareness of most of the activities. By the end of the project, participants:*Increased their self-awareness and developed the habit of reflection necessary to sustain it in the long run, which could have a ripple effect in improving several domains of their lives*Gained new knowledge & skills in terms of identifying, distinguishing, expressing, understanding, and controlling their emotions*Increased their awareness of other people’s emotions (e.g., interindividual differences and similarities, better understanding of how and why they feel a certain way), thus learning some tools for building healthy relationships*Practiced how to approach fake and/or hateful news without letting emotions cloud their judgment*Built friendships with people of different ages, nationalities, and genders (which might even have very different opinions and experiences), thus becoming more accepting towards people from different groups Project impact indicators and results included: YouthPasses for the participants, Certificates of Recognition for the group leaders, creation of social media content (2 video, 1 leaflet, 1 card game), writing social media posts and one magazine article about the project, distribution of social media content.The social media content created by the participants during the project included:1. A Card Game about emotions, which is freely available herehttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1E09j6pyq5seem3581t4yWHlEJQBOgqDy/view?fbclid=IwAR2l9m8l7PpNo6ZCvJbgxJrzWF2TJhRO-o9I4Ae3XmKHkA3iEgCEVMY4H4QThe game can be played in many variations, with its main goal being to initiated conversations about emotions in a fun and engaging way. The game is based on the “Wheels of Emotions” which was used several times during the project implementation to start conversations about emotions. One way in which the card game can be used is by challenging your teammates to guess what emotion you’re talking about by mentioning situations in which that emotions might arise. A detailed descriptions of how this version of the game can be played is available in the document.2. One video about ways to express emotions and testimonials about the learning experience of some of the participants, available here : https://www.facebook.com/AsociatiaSePoate/videos/7007914277347283. One video in which participants challenged themselves to express emotions in a foreign language, available here https://www.facebook.com/AsociatiaSePoate/videos/479446240587480 .4. A comic leaflet about participants’ experience during the Youth Exchange. Due to its rather informal nature, this leaflet was not shared on our official channels, but was shared by some of the participants on their personal social media accounts.