The Digitally Agile Youth Work Project aims to build capacity to deliver digital youth work at local, national, regional and European levels. It is a transnational project with seven partners from six different countries across Europe. As a partnership we believe that quality youth work that meets young people’s needs must, in this modern era, include digital considerations. This does not mean that every youth worker should be a technical expert, but that a recognition that young people are growing up in a digital era and that they need support to navigate the online aspects of their lives and critically analyse online information/ interaction is becoming increasingly central to youth work. There is also huge potential within the youth work sector to enhance and innovate practice through the use of digital technology and media and to use non formal and informal learning to help young people to create digital content and shape the digital world of the future. However alongside these needs and opportunities there is also a lack of confidence, competence, strategic planning and investment to enable the youth work sector to fully embrace these developments. This project aims to increase capacity of the youth work sector to engage with these two areas by offering training, guidance and best practice sharing to practitioners and managers to help incorporate digital youth work into their planning. It also creates opportunities to raise the profile of and showcase the value of digital youth work. Thereby the project objectives will promote quality youth work through supporting open and innovative practices in a digital era. The DAYW project objectives are: -Share good digital youth work practice across Europe leading to improved practice and innovation within the European youth work community -Build capacity of youth workers to respond to digitalisation through training that meets their needs -Improve digital youth work planning and the development of digital youth work strategies through increasing awareness of managers of ethical and organisational considerations and requirements of digital youth work -Raise awareness of digital youth work within the youth work sector and to policy makers and funders nationally and EU wide The project activities include the creation of three intellectual outputs: - Good practice collection (online portal with practice sharing videos and text) - Digital Youth Work Training Resources - European Guidelines for Digital Youth Work The methodology to create these intellectual outputs includes an innovative ‘Training Jam’ process as well as training, networking and consultation within the sector. There will be national multiplier events in each country and a final International Digital Youth Work Summit to showcase innovative practice in digital youth work and launch the European Guidelines for Digital Youth Work.
The Digitally Agile Youth Work Project was a strategic partnership between experts and leaders in the field of Digital Youth Work in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland and Scotland. As a partnership we strongly believe that for youth work in the 21st Century to meet young people’s needs the sector must understand and embrace the role of digitalisation within young people’s lives. There is a catalogue of research that shows that, although some parts of the youth work sector are engaged with digital and incorporating new elements into their practice all the time, there is a significant proportion of the sector that is not fully equipped to engage with the digital era and its important impact on youth work practice. This is often due to a lack of confidence and competence in using technology, making people feel that it isn’t for them or for their practice. Throughout the project we have intended to create accessible resources to help to break down this barrier to engagement and support practitioners and managers to acknowledge the importance of building digital into their youth work, the impact and relevance for young people and the way that new technologies can enhance practice. This project has also engaged with the infrastructure enabling the development of digital youth work; identifying resources needed for good practice examples, building strategic development tools into the training materials and calling on organisations, funders and policy makers to support digital youth work in the European Guidelines for Digital Youth Work.The objectives of the Digitally Agile Youth Work project were:Share good digital youth work practice across Europe leading to improved practice and innovation within the European youth work community Build capacity of youth workers to respond to digitalisation through training that meets their needs Improve digital youth work planning and the development of digital youth work strategies through increasing awareness of managers of ethical and organisational considerations and requirements of digital youth workRaise awareness of digital youth work within the youth work sector and to policy makers and funders nationally and EU wideThe project activities focused on the creation of three intellectual outputs, designed to work towards achieving these objectives. All project outputs can be found on the www.digitalyouthwork.eu website:Good practice collectionThis is a collection of 36 short films showcasing good practice in digital youth work from our 6 countries, with the aim of inspiring youth workers to get involved with digital youth work. Each good practice film is accompanied by text outlining the target audience and aims of the practice, the resources needed and feedback and evaluation. The practices are on a range of themes and are generally low-threshold, not requiring a lot of technical equipment.Digital Youth Work Training ResourcesMaterials to develop digital youth work within the youth work sector. The materials include workshop plans to use when training youth workers, session plans for use with young people and self assessment and organisational development tools. The training materials are on a broad range of topics including media literacy, online counselling, STEAM and social media.European Guidelines for Digital Youth WorkThe European Guidelines for Digital Youth Work have been designed to clearly define Digital Youth Work, its impact and the value of youth work as an important educational practice which can empower young people in a digitalising society. The Guidelines give practical and ethical guidance to youth workers, managers and organisations. They also include a call to action for funders and policy makers for the youth work sector, outlining steps they can take to enable the development of digital youth work for all young people.The project outputs have been developed to complement and augment other developments on Digital Youth Work in Europe, to raise the profile and equip the youth work sector to better meet young people’s needs. The methodology to create these intellectual outputs was a collaborative approach, including an innovative ‘Training Jam’ process as well as training, networking and consultation within the sector.