Building digital media skills to raise climate change awareness among young people Erasmus Project

Project Title

Building digital media skills to raise climate change awareness among young people

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; Energy and resources; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Climate change is no longer a concept or theory; it is now a harsh reality that all people need to face up to. There is ample evidence that young people all over the world are facing up to this challenge. Global demonstrations in 2019 were largely organised and led by young people demanding action. However, protest alone is not sufficient to address the climate change challenge. Action is needed on an individual and collective level to change peoples habits; to adopt more environmentally friendly patterns of production and consumption; and to find solutions to the climate change challenge we all now face.

In society today opportunities to harness the potential of ubiquitous media applications for promoting environmental and climate goals are plentiful. There are now a wide range of always-on digital devices that are affordable, widely available and user-friendly. Mobile phones or smartphones were the devices the most used in 2016 by internet surfers in every EU Member State. The Netherlands is one of the highest rates in the EU at 88%. Ireland at 84% is not far behind. In Portugal the rate stood at 82% and according to a study about Android use in Turkey by strategy consultants OCC&C, mobile penetration of the total population had reached 94% as of 2016 and smartphone penetration was at 68%. Although this is the last year that comparable data is available there is ample anecdotal evidence that penetration rates and usage rates have risen significantly in the last 4 years. Even the cheapest new smartphone has significant media production capacity and these devices can provide learning opportunities for young people that are attractive and engaging.

Aims of the FOOTPRINT project are; – to promote quality and innovation in youth work by building the skills of youth professionals to support them to address climate change issues in their formal, non-formal and informal learning/engagement activities; – leverage the interest of young people in climate change and empower them by building their critical thinking skills especially where climate change and environmental issues are concerned; – encourage young people to be peer leaders and influencers in the fight against climate change.

Objectives of the FOOTPRINT project are; – to provide bespoke in-service training for front-line youth workers to enable them introduce smartphone film making into their everyday practice; – to build key transversal skills of young digital natives through the design and development of an innovative film production training programme using smartphone devices; – to provide a suite of educational resources that develop critical thinking skills to address climate change and motivate them to promote solutions to the many pollutions that accelerate the impact of climate change; – to support young people to script, film, edit and promote thoughtful short films that address a number of critical climate change and environmental topics.

Target groups of the FOOTPRINT project are; – front-line youth workers working in formal, non-formal and informal settings; – young digital natives who are interested in accepting the climate change challenge and trying to instigate change.

Climate change is a global issue and today’s young digital natives are the key guardians of the planet for the future. If every one of the over 8 billion people on Planet Earth today made one small change the impact would be significant. There is no silver bullet to solve climate change. A series of changes by every individual to their patterns of consumption is the only way of stemming the flow of environmental degradation. Affording young people from different countries the opportunity to consider the climate change issues and be solution focused is now essential.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 141896 Eur

Project Coordinator

OSRODEK SZKOLENIOWO-BADAWCZY INNEO & Country: PL

Project Partners

• SOCIAL YOUTH DEVELOPMENT CIVIL NONPROFIT SOCIETY
• Embaixada da Juventude
• FUTURE IN PERSPECTIVE LIMITED
• ASOCIACION CULTURAL Y MEDIOAMBIENTAL PERMACULTURA CANTABRIA
• AKLUB CENTRUM VZDELAVANI A PORADENSTVI