Media and Information literacy as a tool to better respond to the “new normality”

The only constant thing is change – and this is particularly true for young people’s lives and environments, and consequently for youth work. Additionally, the past year has been particularly challenging for all. The COVD-19 pandemic, besides being a health risk, also influenced youth unemployment, young people’s mental health and their access to rights. How can youth work respond to these new challenges, while trying (and sometimes struggling) to offer more and more services online? The seminar will discuss the solutions youth information work came up with and transposes them for the youth sector as a whole, so that youth services could continue evolving and providing relevant services to their target group.

The seminar will focus on media and information literacy and examine its importance across different areas of youth work, as well as its impact on different, but integral aspects, such as critical thinking, assessing information and media, tackling disinformation, young people's needs in post-pandemic Europe, making youth services more sustainable, preventing violent extremism of young people or service design. Media and information literacy skills do not only make young people resilient to different types of manipulation but also actively contribute to their active citizenship and participation. On the other hand, youth workers have to be media literate too, in order to tackle this challenge. Diverse activities, good practice examples and sharing among participants will illustrate the topics and promote creative thinking.

Aims of the seminar:

• To help youth workers develop or increase their skills with regards to their work and programme priorities;
• To address topics relevant to youth work whilst responding to the current context and the needs in the field;
• To assist youth workers to learn skills that they can use in their everyday work with young people;
• To foster future project ideas and co-operation in the discussed areas.

Objectives:

• To find answers to young people's needs in post-pandemic Europe, including:
• developing media and information literacy skills;
• tackling disinformation and promoting critical thinking;
• accessing information as a gatekeeper to accessing rights;
• offering greener youth services;
• preventing consequences of manipulation by disinformation;
• To make the most of existing tools and resources;
• To rethink and adapt good practice examples;
• To develop creative solutions in these areas;
• To gain skills to implement these results.

The participants will be accomodated in single rooms.

!!Currently trainings fall under the 2 G system (vaccinated or recovered from Covid). PCR tests only do not allow participation.