ICT for fostering quality improvements in youth work Erasmus Project

Project Title

ICT for fostering quality improvements in youth work

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

Digital technologies and social media provide new opportunities for youth work activities, as they enable youth workers to explore new models of youth work, promote services to young people and internally manage their organization or projects. Furthermore, online social networking facilitates social interaction and helps youth workers establish a platform for discussion and exchange information with youth groups with shared interests (e.g. online work with socially excluded young people, young people from rural areas, etc.).

ICT4YOUTHWORK project stands for “ICT for fostering quality improvements in youth work” and aimed at helping youth organisations and youth workers to reach young people and deliver activities that ensure responsiveness to the trends in society, such as new technologies and digital media. The Strategic Partnership was cross-sectoral involving a higher education institution (SU), an international non-profit association specialized on e-Participation and communications (GOV2U), a business consulting firm (SPI) and a youth organization (ZURY).

The General objective of the project was to increase the quality of youth sector in Europe by sharing know-how across sectors, generating and disseminating knowledge on methods and practices of digital tools and social media use in youth work.

The ICT4YOUTHWORK had the following specific objectives:
1: To map, analyze and report on good practices in online youth work that can be transferred and adopted across youth work from Sweden, Greece, Portugal and Romania and throughout Europe;
2: To enhance the uptake of ICT, digital and social media in the practices of the organizations engaging in youth work;
3: To improve access to existing knowledge, experience and know-how on best practices, tools and methodologies for youth work in the digital age.

The core target group of ICT4YOUTHWORK consisted of organizations and individuals engaging in youth work from Sweden, Greece, Portugal and Romania, as well as other Erasmus+ countries. The project also targeted stakeholders who are active within youth policy, youth education or training and youth integration, such as trainers, educators and experts in the public and non-public actors.

Myrsini Glinos, from eGovlab Stockholm University was the Project Manager of ICT4YOUTHWORK and Work Package Leader of WP4 “Knowledge Repository Design and Development”. Maria Petritsopoulou was the Interaction Designer and Stefan Nenzén was the Developer from SU. Andreea Sida, from ZURY led WP2, named “Sharing of Experiences and Mapping of Good Practice Case Studies. Tiago Marques from SPI, led WP3 “Co-creation of a Guideline”. Dora Spyropoulou from Gov2You, led WP5 “Project Promotion, Dissemination and Exploitation”.

The project was implemented from 2017-2019. It developed three intellectual outputs and organised four Multiplier Events in Romania, Sweden and Portugal. In total 139 people attended the events from youth organisations, youth agencies, schools, etc. The intellectual outputs produced in English, Swedish, Greek, Portuguese and Romanian are:
• O1 Report on good practice case studies of online youth work practices – It presents 30 case studies of good practice examples in Sweden, Greece, UK, Portugal and Romania, as well as the project’s research findings on what tools youth and youth workers use for different purposes.
• O2 Guideline on the web-based tools and practice examples of their use in the daily life of an organization and in digital youth work – It contains a Privacy Impact Assessment examining privacy issues associated with collecting, handling and sharing information about young people, a glossary of terms related to different applications and social media and provides practical examples such as: Disseminating Information on a Website; Building virtual communities/discussion group lists; Using project management applications, Real-time storytelling; Tips how to use social media for different purposes etc.
• O3 The Knowledge Repository on best practices, tools and methodologies for youth work in the digital age – A centralized digital repository of good practice case studies of online youth work practices, web applications and services that can be used by organizations involved in youth work, thematic publications related to the youth work in the digital age.

The longer term benefit resulting from the project is a more strategic and integrated use of ICTs by organizations engaged in youth work and therefore increased quality of youth work. Moreover, ICT4YOUTHWORK project hopes to achieve a positive impact on youth work practitioners and youth led organizations who are ready to integrate good practices and new ICT methods into the daily activities of their organizations, better exploit the ICT potential in their work and develop innovative approaches to addressing their target groups.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 226769,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

STOCKHOLMS UNIVERSITET & Country: SE

Project Partners

• SOCIEDADE PORTUGUESA DE INOVACAO CONSULTADORIA EMPRESARIAL E FOMENTO DA INOVACAO SA
• GOVERNMENT TO YOU ATHENS OFFICE OF FOREIGN COMPANY
• ASOCIATIA ZURY