Through this project, we aimed to establish collaboration with less experienced local organizations in Greece and Spain within a similar scope of activities. Our goal was to achieve an international dimension in our work and develop innovative non-formal education programs to involve a greater number of young people with fewer opportunities in the critical examination of news and content available on portals and social media.In this way, we sought to enhance the quality of the participating organizations' work with young people.The project aimed to strengthen the capacities of youth workers from organizations that have not participated or have limited experience in implementing international training.The objective was to enable them to promptly recognize the impact of fake news on the mental health of young users and equip them to constructively respond to the needs of young people with fewer opportunities.The project aimed to develop new digital tools focused on improving the quality of training for young people in recognizing the distinction between reality and media representation. It aimed to strengthen the capacities of participating and collaborating organizations in using innovative digital tools in future work.
The information is crucial for communication, but it is simultaneously susceptible to misuse, leading to the spread of fake news. Social media, as a significant channel for information exchange, does not require source citation, making it challenging to establish the reliability of information. The problem is compounded by misinformation, negatively impacting people's mental health in terms of anxiety, depression, and fatigue. Since there is no unified approach to addressing the impact of fake news on mental health at the EU level, taking action within the local community provides the best foundation for disseminating positive results.The most effective approach has been the use of critical thinking and analysis, which is why planned activities would focus on strengthening critical thinking through innovative digital non-formal training.Partner organizations recognize that reaching young people is easiest through the internet. Therefore, working with young people to empower critical thinking should be based on innovative digital tools.NGO's are the best actors for primary community intervention, and they will disseminate the developed innovative tools and methods to their network of collaborators from other sector.