Objectives

The overall results of the project include innovation in training methodologies and tools, especially e- learning methods and virtual cooperation, including those digital tools that support the upgrading of existing practices in youth work. It will contribute to the literature in this area by exploring how social media are not only shaping social movements, and advocacy but also changing how activists and SMOs interact with each other. The educational methodology will cover a broad terrain ranging from analyses of knowledge transfer between grassroots activists via social media to large SMOs. The project platform “YLE” will introduce new ways of involving youngsters in democratic life by showing them the right mechanism for how to express their opinion and voices through the power of social media and the internet. The platform will include open-source tools for building an online community, and for targeting and influencing audiences for social and behavioural change. With the advancement of technology, young people will be harnessing new opportunities to make their voices heard and participate in public life through alternative means such as online forums, mobile phone texting, e-democracy and social media.

Additionally, the project will:

• Identify the different uses young people make of social networks and, particularly, the new practices around their participation as digital citizens, in relation to the meanings young people attribute to them. - Encourage a knowledge-based approach to youth participation in democratic life within different EU programmes by enabling relevant institutions to utilize the findings of research on youth participation
• To develop a brand-new IT platform by establishing an inventory of youth initiatives/projects/activities, where young people will use the Internet and social media, including digital tools and apps for democratic participation, critical engagement in public life and social activism.
• Provide opportunities to connect youth to different networks through the creation and strengthening of online platforms and multimedia campaigns that raise awareness of opportunities for youth
• Strengthen initial and continuous training of social workers, including teachers and youth workers, on how to teach young people the skills for civic engagement and participation
• Ensure that young people have access to citizenship education to provide them with solid knowledge on social media activism, democracy and human rights, which is also attained through community-based experiences to promote active citizen participation.