'DigiYouth' Erasmus+ project

Inga Vaickienė
Sep 8, 2022
2 min read

We are living in the midst of a digital revolution. More people are connected to the Internet than ever before, using digital devices and services for work and for all aspects of their life. In part, this has been fuelled by the rise of mobile broadband,

which every day ensures the participation of more people. New technologies have also proliferated over the past decade – some even more recently – artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, cloud computing, Internet of Things, machine learning, mobile applications, and 3D printing among others. These will drive profound change in our daily lives over the coming decade, radically altering how we consume, produce, and work. And, as with all transformational changes, they present us with a great opportunity – and significant challenge too (B. Sanou, ITU 2018). Hence, the coronavirus pandemic caused all educational institutions/ NGOs across the globe to shift toward digital learning/communication/participation. This situation made all us to think about how we can help educators/youth workers/teachers handle these tough times.

Fort his reasons we decided to support youth workers who during the social distancing period had to use ICT tools, and as we see from our own personal examples, a lot of youth workers struggles with it because of a lack of knowledge and skills on

how to use, manage, or select suitable tools for youth groups.

ICT generally means all devices, networking components, applications, and systems that combined allow people and organizations (i.e., companies, non-profit agencies, governments, and institutions) to interact in the digital world. The rise

of the usage of the online platform has given non-governmental organizations (NGOs) a lot of possibilities in terms of communication. For example, Social media now provide a platform for residents where they can share their opinions directly. It has many advantages to NGOs such as reaching out to potential donors, youth workers, and other users, prompt action to user feedback and while doing this it is free/low cost. ICT tools have been a very important tool lately and we believe it will increase their impact. Online platforms (IT/ICT) can be very good support for the active citizenship of

young people and youth works. Therefore, we would like to support youth workers and youth organizations with ICT tools.

Our project-related and support the EU 2027 youth strategy. The EU Youth Strategy focuses on 3 words: Engage, Connect, Empower. It also works on joined-up implementation across sectors. The project aim is to develop international

Co-operation with potential partners and to up-skill youth workers/youth leaders

on ICT tools in youth work.

The objectives of the project:

To develop youth workers’ digital competencies through ICT;

To improve the ability for Co-operation and working in international partnership;

To prepare common projects by using ICT tools which will ensure further partnership among the partners;

How to use ICT tools to reach young people and youth organisations as learning and participation platform (E-Learning,

and E participation);

To explore online tools and resources to increase learning through e-participation;

Share good practices of ICT tools in the field of the youth;

Reflect on-demand skills and attitudes to increase quality in digital youth works;

To develop actions and pluralist youth participation (E- participation);