Our goal was to empower students to become active, responsible, and critically engaged citizens who understand the value of their voice in both online and offline democratic spaces. We wanted to make DCE tangible by linking it to real-world action through Service-Learning. The project aimed to (1) build students’ digital, intercultural, and civic competences; (2) strengthen teachers’ capacity to implement transnational Service-Learning; and (3) develop and share concrete models for integrating DCE and Service-Learning in schools across Europe. We also sought to encourage lasting structures for cross-border collaboration.
We applied for this project to respond to an urgent educational need: empowering young people to act responsibly, ethically and actively in the digital space. With digital technologies reshaping everyday life and democratic participation, schools must help students navigate the online world with confidence, critical thinking, and a sense of shared responsibility. Yet, Digital Citizenship Education (DCE) remains underdeveloped in many curricula. We aimed to address this gap by combining DCE with Service-Learning—an approach that links academic learning to civic engagement. The project also responded to current societal dynamics such as misinformation, digital exclusion, and the rise of AI, particularly relevant in light of the 2024 European elections and first-time voters aged 16 in some European countries.