1) Increase the capacity of the Consortium to implement hybrid methodologies in youth work, enabling us to react to situations like the COVID-19 pandemic and work through times when mobility is limited. 2) Create and field-test practical methodologies to work with youth participants on the topic of fake news, misinformation, disinformation, populism, demagogy, manipulation and hate speech. Create a toolkit out of these methodologies and share it with external stakeholders, youth workers and youth to be used in their direct work with youth and peers. 3) Increase media literacy of our participants and target groups and them about fake news and hate speech. Reach out beyond our Consortium and in other European countries by using the potential of multipliers (active youth interested in current issues, teaching and training). Include disadvantaged youth to reach better equality of non-formal education. 4) Elevate the debate on European values amongst the youth and through their influence in the whole society. Contribute to the European society’s ability to discuss controversial topics in a calm and informed manner, using critical thinking skills instead of argumentation based on emotions, bias or uninformed opinions.
When we came up with the idea of the project with our partners, we decided to address the following needs that we strongly perceived in our work: • Media and information literacy deficit: the ubiquitous presence of fake news, disinformation, misinformation, hate speech, manipulation and demagogy in today’s media and the lack of skills of information consumers to verify their sources, to debunk misinformation or to fight disinformation. • The COVID-19 pandemic: forcing physical education to move into the digital realm created unforeseen challenges caused by the overuse of digital, virtual and augmented methods. This crisis clearly showed the need for designing innovative blended methods of working with the youth. • Inadequate capacity of the Consortium for hybrid working practices with the youth which take the best from both physical and digital methods while eliminating their drawbacks. • Disenchantment of the youth with political development, their mistrust in democratic processes, erosion of European values and rising perception of the European Union as something “external”. These needs were still relevant in the implementation phase and addressing them brought positive impact.