The Hope Network is an online network and pan-Canadian community for 18 to 25-year olds, moderated by educators and researchers. It started in 2019 as the Civic Literacy Youth Network (CLYN) because young adults we talked with were concerned about increasing levels of racial and religious discrimination. 

The Hope Network offers a space for young adults across Canada to discuss related issues by incorporating a full spectrum of religious, spiritual and secular viewpoints. It includes individuals from urban and rural regions across Canada as well as from different backgrounds (including Indigenous, agnostics, Buddhist, Christian, humanist, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh, among other religious, spiritual, and secular affiliations). 

This funded project evaluates the Hope Network and asks: How does developing religious literacy in an online non-traditional educational setting help young Canadians resist and counter extremism? In particular, how did the CLYN participants’ religious literacy inform (or not) the Islamophobia and antisemitism about Israel and Palestine after October 7?

We are conducting interviews with past participants, reviewing pre-, mid-, and post-training surveys from past participants, and surveying current participants to understand the impact of informal online religious literacy programming. Our hope is this evaluation will contribute in four ways:

• Improve and strengthen the Hope Network and future CCRL online programs or projects; 
• Contribute to the work of researchers and organizations that are leading programs and studies about religious literacy; 
• Support the Hope Network participants in their growth; and,
• Inform policy goals outlined in Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy (2024–2028).

We will post a policy brief and short video at the end of the project to share findings.