Courage to Care has partnered with cool.org to launch a new online education resource for teachers and students to fight against the alarming increase in hate speech in Australia.
The free, online resources will equip teachers to tackle issues of racism, discrimination, antisemitism and stereotyping with their year 9 and 10 students, whilst also giving them the tools to stand up and take action against hate speech in their schools and communities. There is a set of six digital lesson plans in the resource.
cool.org is a not-for profit organisation dedicated to creating real-world, curriculum-aligned teaching resources that equip educators to ‘teach the stuff that matters’, creating better outcomes for humanity.
Courage to Care Victoria CEO, Mike Zervos said today that Courage to Care was now “more determined than ever to forge ahead with our mission to create a generation of Upstanders against prejudice and discrimination. Our commitment to offering face-to-face programs is unwavering and adding this online resource with nationwide access for teachers and students is wonderful added bonus.”
Cool.org education specialist Mahnee Cooke said: “I was fortunate to have seen the impact that Courage to Care’s face-to-face program had with a group of Year 9 students. I knew that being able to spread their message to more teachers and students through these freely available lesson plans was only going to increase that impact.”
Mike Zervos said: “In our 30-year history, we have impacted the lives of more than 160,000 Victorian students, with volunteers delivering face-to-face facilitated Upstander Program workshops in the school setting.
“Taking our Upstander Education online in partnership with Cool.org allows us a natural next step in the current climate – the need for proactive response is greater than ever before, and these online resources will allow us to reach a far greater, broader and diverse range of teachers and students than ever before.”
Mahnee Cooke added: “I believe it is so important to not only educate young people about the dangers of racism, prejudice, discrimination and bullying, but also to provide them with skills and strategies to be Upstanders in their communities. I think they are going to create a lot of impact.’”