How to… support young people to use digital tools for active civic participation?

in focus: ACTIon project

From 14 March to 14 April 2022 was held All Digital Week 2022 – a series of online events with presentations and discussions regarding the challenging youths’ online participation and promotions of digital tools for civic participation and education of young people online.

On 23 March 2022, the topic of discussion was: How to… support young people to use digital tools for active civic participation? in focus: ACTIon project. We presented to the participants in the forum our ideas on how to provide young people with digital tools for active civic participation:

  • OPIN – an online platform where young people can exchange ideas, attract partners and work together on a topic of common interest and
  • F.I.R.E. – mobile application that allows them to train and develop themselves no matter where they are and what time they have.

During the discussion the participants sought answers to two important questions:

  • How do you in your work, activate young people to participate online?
  • How can we make civic education more relevant for young people?

The participants shared their observations that young people are now tired of the hours spent in front of digital devices. It is difficult to attract them to participate in online training because of the COVID pandemic and the months of schooling conducted in a digital environment. Still there are some ideas how to approach the young people and involve them in online participation:

  • The information should be presented interestingly, interactively and in popular language.
  • The information should correspond to the personal online searches and needs of the young people, adapted to their reality.
  • The school curriculum should provide a broader overlap of the topics of civic education
  • The young people should be provided with access to online resources and programs that give them additional information and practice. This requires advertising and dissemination of tools already created.
  • To work directly with the opinion leaders in the youth online networks and the influencers. Peer to peer is a model proven to be effective in youth work, in the field of civic education and youth activation.

The digital world increases the access to opportunities and information. The main task in our work for ACTIon project – Promoting active citizenship through civic education and active online participation, is to transmit this knowledge and skills to young people.

More information about the project can be found on the website: https://www.erasmus-action.eu/

The project is funded under the European Programme: Erasmus+, KA3 Social Inclusion through Education

Project partners:

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