Context/background:This strategic partnership is a response to the current refugee crisis in Europe and the fact that young people need up-to-date digital and media literacy skills to be able to use digital technologies to address the social issues around them. It is based on the long-standing experience of the participating organisations in developing trainings in digital skills for young people, and in particular for their digital inclusion. The idea came from the realisation that young people should be empowered to be active players in current societal developments, in particular the current refugee crisis, and that digital technologies can help them understand the issues, engage and look for solutions.Objectives:The project will create an easy-to-apply training methodology “Find-Tell-Act” to introduce young people to the possibilities of digital media to tell a story, make sense of events, raise awareness and provoke change. This methodology will be based on the previous experience of the partners in providing trainings in digital literacy, and will be composed of three thematic workshops: digital photography, digital storytelling and digital journalism. The methodology will be contextualised to the topic of migration and refugees, but will be adaptable to other topics, as well. The methodology will be accompanied with guidelines for other organisations, which would like to apply it, providing them with good practices and tips on how to reach disadvantaged youth and engage them in the training, how to adapt it to other topics and engage other stakeholders.Number and profile of participants:The target group of the project is youth from socially or economically disadvantaged background. Direct participants of the project will be 8 youth workers from the partner organisations, who will contribute to the development of the methodology, and 25 young people, who will participate in blended learning mobility. Another 60 young people are expected to participate in local peer-to-peer info days that young people will organise for their peers once they complete the training, to showcase their work and pass on their experience. At least 50 e-facilitators (educators in telecentres) working with youth will participate in the final multiplier event.Description of activities and methodology:The project has 3 phases. During the 1st phase, partners will develop the training methodology based on the three workshops outlined above and will establish the online platform. In parallel, they will develop a handbook for youth engagement, which will help them to reach and attract youth. They will select the young people for the training and organise an orientation day for the preselected to introduce them to the topic “Migration and the EU refugee crisis”.Phase 2 is the blended training, where the methodology will be tested with 25 young people. The training will consist of 1,5 months preparatory online learning; 6-days of face-to-face training and another 1,5 month of follow up online training (C1). Upon completion of the training, young people with support & mentoring from the partner organisations at the local level will organise peer-to-peer info events for other young people in their neighbourhood or city, where they will demonstrate what they have learned and created (O4).In the final stage of the project, partners’ experiences from the trainings will feed into refining and fine-tuning of the methodology (O2) and development of the Guidelines for its implementation (O5).Results and impact:The main expected results of the project are increased digital skills of the young people and their understanding of migration and the refugee crisis and its different consequences. The project will increase their knowledge on using digital media, equipping them with new skills, which will help them to express themselves and address the problems around them in a critical and constructive way. These skills will also be useful in employment, and possibly motivate them to get further training in digital skills by giving them a “taste” of the numerous possibilities that ICT offers. They will also improve their analytic, personal and intercultural skills, since for most of them this will be the first international experience. Additionally, the youth workers and partner organisations involved will increase their capacity and will have at their disposal a comprehensive methodology for conducting similar training in the future.
Youth e-Perspectives on Migration is one of our favorite projects. Why? Because it is about young people, digital skills and media literacy, about refugees and migration, mutual understanding, history and future. All at the same time. This strategic partnership was designed as a response to the current refugee crisis in Europe and the fact that young people need up-to-date digital and media literacy skills to be able to use digital technologies to address the social issues around them. It is based on the experience of the three organisations working in the field (MAKS vzw, El Teb and Telecentar) in running digital skills trainings for young people. The idea came from the realisation that young people should be empowered to be active players in current societal issues, in particular the current refugee crisis, and that digital technologies can help them better understand the issues, engage and look for solutions. The idea was to create a methodology for a short training course combining digital photography, storytelling and online platforms. The topic was migration and the refugee crisis. So, what does the methodology include? Find Young participants learned different ways to “find” a story. An online magazine on refugees and migration was created with FlipBoard, combining and comparing different sources of information. Participants then learned how to make a story through photography. They visited a refugee facility and took interviews from representatives of organisations working with refugees on the field. Tell With all this experience as a background, they then worked on their own personal digital stories related to migration. And guess what!? They all had one! Together they applied what they had learned to create a picture of migration, reflecting on how they see it through their own eyes. Act Last, but not least, they learned about the digital opportunities to raise awareness and start an initiative online, using for example social media platforms not only for posting pictures of their whereabouts, but bringing their friends’ attention to something meaningful. They learned to write a blog and express their ideas. Thus, they approached the topic from many different perspectives, at the same time acquiring valuable technical and digital skills such as video editing, sound and video recording, using advanced features of professional cameras, or their mobile devices. This was not all done during the 6-day training in Croatia, but also through online collaboration through the project training platform, facebook group and google shared drives. The project has 3 phases. During the 1st phase, partners developed the draft training methodology basically combining the three workshops (Digital Photography, Digital Storytelling and Online Platforms) and established the online platform. In parallel, we looked into our experience, reflected on it and developed a handbook for youth engagement, which help us to reach and attract youth, and can also help other organisations who (want to) work with this target group. It's a very practical document. Then partners selected the young people for the training and organised preparatory sessions for the selected participants. Phase 2 is the blended training, where the methodology was tested with 25 young people. The training consisted of up to 4 preparatory f2f meetings at local level with each national group of 8 young people; 6-days of face-to-face training and follow-up activities on the online platform. There was an online screening of the video stories that the young people finalised back home. Upon completion of the training, young people with support & mentoring from the partner organisations at the local level organised peer-to-peer info events in their city, where they demonstrated what they have learned and created. In the final stage of the project, we took stock of our experience during the training and updated the methodology to make the different parts work better together. Based on our experience, we also developed the Guidelines for other organisations. Results and impact The main expected results of the project are increased digital and civic competences of the young people and their understanding of migration and the refugee crisis, as well as the enriched skills of the facilitators. The project increased not only their knowledge on using digital media, equipping them with new skills, which will help them to express themselves and address the problems around them in a critical and constructive way, but it also improved their analytic, personal and intercultural skills, and most of all, their self-confidence and mutual respect.