Pros4Democracy was intended to achieve: a. 4 BROAD OBJECTIVES by: 1. making young citizens aware of how content on social/media is developed and distributed by different sources, including malicious or misinformed sources in the digital world including news and social media. 2. promoting critical voting literacy achieved through higher media, socio-emotional and social justice literacy, 3. increasing participation in democratic process therefore countering apathy and cynicism about its value and effectiveness and 4. pushing the need for more critical voting literacy and higher participation in democratic process higher on the agenda of EU institutions. b. 4 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES of: 1. EMPOWERING YOUTHS WITH THE NECESSARY KNOWLEDGE AND COMPETENCES REQUIRED TO BE CRITICAL VOTERS, 2. CULTIVATING A GENERATION OF YOUTHS THAT ARE ACTIVE AND POSITIVE AGENTS OF CHANGE IN THEIR COMMUNITIES with more knowledge, competences and confidence as communicators with sound moral, democratic and European values, 3. REWIRING YOUNG MINDS AND THEIR COMMUNITIES COUNTERING MANIPULATIVE STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE EXTREME RIGHT VIEWS AND ANTI DEMOCRATIC (AND EU) SENTIMENT and 4. UPPING THE PROFESSIONAL PROFILE AND CAPACITY OF YOUTH ORGANISATIONS AND WORKERS.
Pros4Democracy was conceived to equip and empower youths so that they: - acquire competences needed by critical voters to be knowledgeable about what is happening around them through higher media literacy, - become aware of the European values of democracy, social solidarity and sustainable equality through socio-emotional literacy and social justice literacy, - become active EU citizens ready willing and able to promote European values in their future professional life and - up their skills and confidence in being more eloquent promoters of democratic rights and European values. It met the needs of citizens, communities and the European Union to place more and better participation in democracy higher on the EU agenda, putting youths as leaders of the message outwards so that, after working on their themselves and maturing their vision of things, they become a positive influence within their networks. The context of the project is the higher incidence of right wing extremism and lower turnouts in participation in democratic participation across Europe, especially from the younger generations. It is also in the context of the need of critical voting mindsets in times of incorrect, distracting, fake news and monopoly of the media.