We wanted to improve the inclusiveness and effectiveness of youth participation in local decision-making by embedding digital transformation into youth work. The main goal was to make participation more engaging and accessible for young people and to help municipalities and youth organizations embrace innovative digital methods. More concretely, we aimed to develop an innovative tool that allows municipalities to collect young people’s views, opinions, and concerns in an interactive and youth-friendly way, blending digital and physical participation. The usage of the tool needed a new methodology for youth dialogue at the local level, providing municipalities with a structured approach to conduct consultations and participatory processes using the developed tool. It provides a reference framework for innovative and effective digital engagement in youth policy-making. In addition, we wanted to train youth workers from municipalities and civil society organizations to utilize the tool in “phygital” settings, thereby enhancing their digital competencies and facilitation skills.
Many local authorities and civil society organizations still lack the digital skills, knowledge, and resources required to effectively integrate technology into youth work. This gap limits their ability to foster youth participation through innovative digital tools. The Covid-19 crisis made this even more evident, highlighting the urgent need to enhance digital competencies among youth workers and to promote accessible, blended learning opportunities that ensure the sustainability of youth work practices both online and offline. Given the above, the project addressed, on one hand, the needs of youth workers and, on the other, the needs of young people, all together combined to address the needs of municipalities for creating quality youth policies and processes in a participatory manner and thus contribute to creating stronger local democracies with citizens engaged from an early age. Moreover, the project addressed the need to increase young people’s awareness and engagement in the 2024 European elections. According to “The Future of Europe” report, many young citizens felt disconnected from European Institutions that they perceive as unrepresentative and overly bureaucratic. Through this project, we tried to bridge that gap.