Although the digital technologies and social media provide many opportunities for the youth work, there is a relatively thin knowledge base on online youth work and most of such information is provided in English language. There is a need for written guidance on the use of ICT, digital and social media in youth work for youth workers, laying out principles of best practice and demonstrating impact. ICT4YOUTHWORK stands for “ICT for fostering quality improvements in youth work” and is a Strategic Partnership of cross-sectoral nature involving a higher education institution (Stockholm University,Sweden) as Coordinator and an international non-profit association specialized on e-Participation and marketing communications (GOV2U, Belgium), a business consulting firm (SPI-Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação S.A., Portugal) and a youth organization (ZURY Association, Romania) as partners. Its general objective is to foster innovation in quality youth work provision and practice for young people in Europe by sharing know-how, generating more knowledge and disseminating good practice examples on using ICT in youth work. The specific objectives are • To map, analyze and report on good practices in online youth work that can be transferred and adopted across youth work from Sweden, Greece, Portugal and Romania and throughout Europe; • To enhance the uptake of ICT, digital and social media in the practices of the organizations engaging in youth work; • To improve access to existing knowledge, experience and know-how on best practices, tools and methodologies for youth work in the digital age. The innovative dimension of the project is related to the content of the intellectual outputs planned to be produced in English, Swedish, Greek, Portuguese and Romanian: • O1. Report on good practice case studies of online youth work practices - It will present 30 case studies of good practice examples in the world and in Sweden, Greece, Portugal and Romania. • O2. Guideline on the web-based tools and practice examples of their use in the daily life of an organization and in digital youth work - It will contain a glossary of terms related to different web applications and social media sites and will provide practical examples such as: Disseminating Information on a Web Site; Building virtual communities/discussion group lists; Using project management web applications, realtime voice / video / texting systems, popular blogging platforms; Tips how to use social media for different purposes etc. • O3. The Knowledge Repository on best practices, tools and methodologies for youth work in the digital age - A centralized digital repository of good practice case studies of online youth work practices, web applications and services that can be used by organizations involved in youth work, thematic publications related to the youth work in the digital age. The core target group consists of organizations and individuals (youth workers) engaging in youth work from Sweden, Greece, Portugal and Romania as well as other Erasmus+ countries. The project will be implemented from 1 June 2017 to 31 May 2019 and will consist of ten transnational project meetings, work through on-line communication channels and project management instruments, and organization of five multipliers events consisting of one event in each participating country and one at EU level in Brussels. ICT4YOUTHWORK project aims to increase the positive impact of youth work activities at local, regional, national, European and international and to ensure benefits for the individuals, organizations and countries involved in the project. The project is intended to produce the following impact at different levels: • Impact on the persons directly involved in the activities of the project: The persons direct involved in the project are the project partners’ staff who will work in this project. They will gain new knowledge and expertise that will increase their competence in the preparation, implementation, monitoring and follow-up of EU projects; • Impact on participating organizations (project partners): The expected impact at organizational level for all four project partners is an increased capacity and professionalism to work at EU level: reinforced cooperation with partners from other countries and from other fields of education, training and youth and/or other socio-economic sectors; increased visibility at national and EU level. • Impact on target groups: youth work practitioners and youth led organizations are ready to integrate good practices and new methods of using ICT into daily activities of their organizations, better exploit the ICT potential in their work and in developing innovative approaches to addressing their target groups. The potential longer term benefit resulting from the project consist of a systemic level impact: more strategic and integrated use of ICTs by organizations engaged in youth work and therefore increased quality of youth work.
Digital technologies and social media provide new opportunities for youth work activities, as they enable youth workers to explore new models of youth work, promote services to young people and internally manage their organization or projects. Furthermore, online social networking facilitates social interaction and helps youth workers establish a platform for discussion and exchange information with youth groups with shared interests (e.g. online work with socially excluded young people, young people from rural areas, etc.). ICT4YOUTHWORK project stands for “ICT for fostering quality improvements in youth work” and aimed at helping youth organisations and youth workers to reach young people and deliver activities that ensure responsiveness to the trends in society, such as new technologies and digital media. The Strategic Partnership was cross-sectoral involving a higher education institution (SU), an international non-profit association specialized on e-Participation and communications (GOV2U), a business consulting firm (SPI) and a youth organization (ZURY). The General objective of the project was to increase the quality of youth sector in Europe by sharing know-how across sectors, generating and disseminating knowledge on methods and practices of digital tools and social media use in youth work. The ICT4YOUTHWORK had the following specific objectives: 1: To map, analyze and report on good practices in online youth work that can be transferred and adopted across youth work from Sweden, Greece, Portugal and Romania and throughout Europe; 2: To enhance the uptake of ICT, digital and social media in the practices of the organizations engaging in youth work; 3: To improve access to existing knowledge, experience and know-how on best practices, tools and methodologies for youth work in the digital age. The core target group of ICT4YOUTHWORK consisted of organizations and individuals engaging in youth work from Sweden, Greece, Portugal and Romania, as well as other Erasmus+ countries. The project also targeted stakeholders who are active within youth policy, youth education or training and youth integration, such as trainers, educators and experts in the public and non-public actors. Myrsini Glinos, from eGovlab Stockholm University was the Project Manager of ICT4YOUTHWORK and Work Package Leader of WP4 “Knowledge Repository Design and Development”. Maria Petritsopoulou was the Interaction Designer and Stefan Nenzén was the Developer from SU. Andreea Sida, from ZURY led WP2, named “Sharing of Experiences and Mapping of Good Practice Case Studies. Tiago Marques from SPI, led WP3 “Co-creation of a Guideline”. Dora Spyropoulou from Gov2You, led WP5 “Project Promotion, Dissemination and Exploitation”. The project was implemented from 2017-2019. It developed three intellectual outputs and organised four Multiplier Events in Romania, Sweden and Portugal. In total 139 people attended the events from youth organisations, youth agencies, schools, etc. The intellectual outputs produced in English, Swedish, Greek, Portuguese and Romanian are: • O1 Report on good practice case studies of online youth work practices - It presents 30 case studies of good practice examples in Sweden, Greece, UK, Portugal and Romania, as well as the project's research findings on what tools youth and youth workers use for different purposes. • O2 Guideline on the web-based tools and practice examples of their use in the daily life of an organization and in digital youth work - It contains a Privacy Impact Assessment examining privacy issues associated with collecting, handling and sharing information about young people, a glossary of terms related to different applications and social media and provides practical examples such as: Disseminating Information on a Website; Building virtual communities/discussion group lists; Using project management applications, Real-time storytelling; Tips how to use social media for different purposes etc. • O3 The Knowledge Repository on best practices, tools and methodologies for youth work in the digital age - A centralized digital repository of good practice case studies of online youth work practices, web applications and services that can be used by organizations involved in youth work, thematic publications related to the youth work in the digital age. The longer term benefit resulting from the project is a more strategic and integrated use of ICTs by organizations engaged in youth work and therefore increased quality of youth work. Moreover, ICT4YOUTHWORK project hopes to achieve a positive impact on youth work practitioners and youth led organizations who are ready to integrate good practices and new ICT methods into the daily activities of their organizations, better exploit the ICT potential in their work and develop innovative approaches to addressing their target groups.