The Rural Hub successfully hosted the Digital Youth Multiplier Event at Cavan Crystal Hotel on December 9, 2023. Attended by 30 Transition Year (TY) teachers, educators, and youth workers, the event focused on elevating digital skills and promoting digitalisation within the youth work sector.

During the event, participants had the opportunity to explore the Digital Youth Project, designed to equip youth workers with essential digital skills for effective engagement in the digital world. The event showcased the Digital Youth Training Package, and the Blended Learning Modules accessible on the Digital Youth eLearning Platform. This provided participants with a comprehensive view of available tools for digital youth work.

Attendees engaged in roundtable discussions, sharing insights on conveying the importance of digital youth, identifying essential digital skills for youth workers, and integrating digital tools with traditional youth work methods. This event allowed youth workers and those working within the sector to exchange knowledge on digital tools and platforms, fostering collaboration and inspiring the creation of tailored digital resources for young people.

On December 12th, 2023, partners of the Digital Youth project assembled in Nicosia, Cyprus, for the conclusive face-to-face meeting of the initiative. This gathering provided an invaluable opportunity to contemplate the project’s achievements and milestones, steering conversations toward the conclusive phases and shaping discussions around the project’s final steps. Partners seized the opportunity for introspection, evaluating both successes and areas warranting improvement.

At its essence, Digital Youth remains committed to empowering and aiding youth workers in cultivating their digital proficiency and knowledge. For those seeking further insights into the project, additional information can be found at: www.digital-youth.eu.

Working with young people is already challenging enough: new trends, different upbringing, various opinions. Working digitally is its own challenge altogether: how to make people participate? How to not make a simple lecture but create an interactive exercise? How to not make the screen freeze?

Combining the two and making it work, is the goal of the Digital Youth project since 2021. The project mixes digital work with youth work, and has committed itself to producing a guide and e-learning content that teaches professionals in youth work how to make engaging content for their lessons, and sessions.

The project includes the efforts of various organisations from Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, and Spain, therefore including insight from all these countries. Thus, the partners created the expected guide and learning content, inviting all youth workers, educators, counsellors, and trainers to explore the results on the project website, www.digital-youth.eu, and to create an interactive and motivating learning environment for the young people in Europe.

Because we all need to adapt to the new digital age, its benefits, and the challenges that come with it. Together we can overcome and engage in a new age of digital youth work.

Further information can be found on the project website: www.digital-youth.eu or via the Spanish partner: Consultoría de Innovación Social, www.cis-es.eu

On the 30^th of November 2023, the Consultoría de Innovación Social, operating from Torre del Mar, conducted a local multiplier event with the Centro Cultural La Llave in Málaga. The event was attended by various professionals in the fields of youth work, as well as students in the field of ICT skills and education.

During the event, the organisation promoted the project’s results, including its e-learning platform and learning content, its manual on digital youth work and the policy and recommendations paper which features more information on the project and its suggestions for improving youth work in the future.

The event received good feedback from the participants, highlighting the ease of availability and navigation to the platform, and praise for the materials on introducing new and easy online tools that can turn a boring online lecture into an engaging learning experience, inducing the active participation of everyone attending and improving the learning process.

The Digital Youth project features partners from Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, and Spain and will finalise around the end of 2023.

Further information can be found on the project website: www.digital-youth.eu or via the Spanish partner: Consultoría de Innovación Social, www.cis-es.eu

The Digital Youth project is pleased to share its final Joint Policy and Recommendations Paper with the public. After conducting various trainings and focus groups with young people, youth workers, and educators in Spain, done by the Consultoría de Innovación Social in Torre del Mar, and the other partner countries, the paper combines the collected efforts on recommendations and suggestions for improved youth work in the future.

The paper includes good practices, as well as direct examples from the partner countries of Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, and Spain, on how to overcome challenges in youth work, especially when using digital tools and methods.

While digital interaction has become more frequent and regular in the last years, digital youth work still struggles to adhere to certain standard and is therefore often provided in an in-person format.

The paper provides more insight in how to handle challenges such as engaging new participants in training or sessions, as well as how to make learning more interesting. The recommendations stated in the paper are directed towards the youth workers, as well as the institutions working with young people in Spain.

Because change and improvement must happen on all levels with everyone participating.

Further information can be found on the project website: www.digital-youth.eu

The Digital Youth project recently completed its PR3 Focus Group online in Ireland, bringing together 10 youth workers and trainers for a dynamic discussion on challenges faced in youth work and the implementation of digital youth work initiatives. The two-hour session explored diverse perspectives and insights from participants with varying levels of experience.

Facilitated online, the PR3 Focus Group delved into the goals of the Digital Youth project, providing an overview to the 10 participants. Outreach to these individuals, representing various youth organisations, was conducted through email. The mix of participants included those already familiar with the project and others new to its concept, creating an engaging and diverse online discussion.

The participants engaged in an engaging discussion, addressing main challenges in youth work and digital youth work implementation in Ireland, identifying challenges such as a lack of resources, the changing technological landscape, and online safety concerns. The insights gained from this focus group will inform the Digital Youth Project’s ongoing initiatives, ensuring that digital youth work remains inclusive and addresses the specific challenges faced by youth workers in Ireland.

The Digital Youth project recently completed its pilot implementation of the innovative Digital Youth eLearning Platform and Digital Learning Resources, marking a significant milestone in advancing digital skills among youth workers and promoting engaging learning experiences. The pilot implementation comprised two training sessions held in Cavan, Ireland, and Virginia, Ireland, on the 3^rd and 25^th October 2023, respectively. The events aimed to introduce participants to the Digital Youth project, providing them with an opportunity to explore the eLearning platform and Digital Learning Resources.

The first training was attended by 13 participants, including youth workers and aspiring social workers. The second event, attended by 12 regional youth workers, showcased varying levels of digital literacy. The diverse mix of participants promoted the exchange of best practices and valuable advice among the groups. Participants’ feedback emphasised various positive aspects of the platform, including the variety of digital tools, best practice examples, digital skills self-assessment, and engaging evaluation methods. Many participants commended the platform’s accessibility, self-paced nature, and real-world relevance, making it suitable for individuals with different levels of tech-savviness and busy schedules!

Digital Youth 

PR3 – CY Focus Group 

The Digital Youth project is pleased to announce the successful completion of the Focus Group for the PR3 National Policy and Practice Recommendations Report in Nicosia, Cyprus. The Focus Group took place in two sessions held on the 15th of September 2023 and on the 24th of October 2023. The first session was incorporated in the PR2 – Trainings and Implementations, with the participation of twenty (20) youth workers, whereas the second session took place in the form of a 1:1 with a stakeholder with a Municipal Councillor who is actively engaged in the field of youth work in his municipality and beyond. During the focus group participants discussed the challenges for both youth work and digital youth work and brainstormed on the means to mitigate these challenges. The session ended with the participants sharing their own experiences and witnessed best practices in overcoming the challenges of digital youth work.

The PR3 Focus Group was organised by CARDET and KOKEN in the framework of Digital Youth project, a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union Grant Agreement Number: K2021-1-CY02-KA220-YOU-000029051.

The content of this publication represents the view of the author(s) only and his/her/their responsibilities.

Digital Youth 

PR2: CY Trainings – Implementation

The Digital Youth project is pleased to announce the successful completion of the Trainings – Implementation for the PR2 in Nicosia, Cyprus. The Trainings – Implementation was conducted in two different sessions – one of them being face-to-face whilst the other took place online. The face-to-face session took place on the 15th of September 2023 with the participation of twenty (20) youth workers and it involved an overview of the project, an introduction to the eLearning Platform and a discussion on best practices on digital you work. The second session took place online, at participants own time and pace and it involved a twelve hour (12h) online engagement via the eLearning Platform. During the face-to-face session the facilitator remained neutral as to their personal opinion(s) whilst leaving the floor open for discussion among the participants and the provision of their recommendations. The session ended with the participants sharing their experiences, perspectives and witnessed best practices in digital youth work.

The PR2 Trainings – Implementations were organised by CARDET and KOKEN in the framework of Digital Youth project, a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union Grant Agreement Number: K2021-1-CY02-KA220-YOU-000029051.

The content of this publication represents the view of the author(s) only and his/her/their responsibilities.

Digital Youth 

eLearning Platform

The consortium of the Digital Youth project is pleased to announce the successful completion of its second project result, which involved the development of an eLearning Environment. We actively worked on creating a free, engaging and interactive eLearning Environment that serves as the home for a number of tools and resources. Most importantly, the eLearning Platform hosts the Digital Youth eLearning Course which is comprised by three (3) blended learning modules – aiming at enhancing the skills and competencies of youth workers and of adults working within the youth work field. This eLearning Platform also hosts a wealth of additional resources to support youth workers and trainers in their digital youth work, including articles, publications, handbooks, podcasts, videos and digital tools. You can access the eLearning Platform here. Our platform has also been tested by experienced youth workers across all partner countries in order to shape it further according to their needs. The feedback collected has been adapted in order to optimise the experience of its users.

The eLearning Environment was produced by the entirety of the  consortium, with the leadership and guidance of CARDET, in the framework of Digital Youth project, a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union Grant Agreement Number: K2021-1-CY02-KA220-YOU-000029051.

The content of this publication represents the view of the author(s) only and his/her/their responsibilities.