Always ON for Youth

Young Men’s Christian Associations Romania Federation (YMCA Romania), as coordinator, together with Young Initiative Association – Romania (AYI), Sdrujenie “Nadejda-CRD” -Bulgaria (Nadejda), The Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service – France (CCIVS ) and the Alliance Europeenne des YMCA – Belgium (YMCA Europe), as partners, announce the start of the implementation of the strategic youth partnership project “#AlwaysON for youth”, co-financed by the European Union through the Erasmus + Program.

The aim of the project is to increase the capacity of youth organisations from Romania, France, Bulgaria, Belgium, and the federated networks of the partnership consortium to serve young people (including vulnerable youth) extensively and intensively through digital youth work and digital inclusion and safety practices.

The objectives of the project are:

1. To develop a collaborative learning space focused on digital inclusion and digital youth work between 5 EU-based youth organisations through the sharing of best practices and national approaches;
2. Increase the capacity of at least 100 youth workers from minimum 4 EU countries to engage in digital inclusion and digital youth work activities;
3. Increase the capacity of at least 25 youth organisations from minimum 4 EU countries to improve or adopt digital inclusion practices for reaching out to young people with fewer opportunities from their communities;
4. Raise awareness among minimum 100 youth workers from 4 EU countries around the opportunities, challenges and solutions surrounding digital safety and privacy (including humane technologies and algorithms) 

The expected results of the project are:

• Development  of a digital platform for youth workers that will  foster learning and sharing of good practices among 100 youth workers from at least 4 EU countries;
• “Shaping Digital Inclusion and Safety in the Post-Pandemic World” research paper with the involvement of at least 250 young people and 250 youth workers from at least 4 Eu countries;
• MOOC course on digital inclusion and safety;
• 30 youth workers from 4 EU countries involved in comprehensive digital youth work and digital inclusion training course;
• 5 gamification tools are created and freely available for youth organisations to interactively engage and use them to develop their digital inclusion strategies;

The target group is formed by youth workers from participating countries and other EU and partner countries interested in engaging in digital youth work activities and/or willing to learn more about this topic, youth organisations and their management teams from participating countries and other EU and partner countries who are planning to develop or create their digital youth work capacity/strategy and teachers who are interested in organising digital activities with their students and can get strong inspiration from digital youth work and digital inclusion practices.

The project will last 25 months, respectively April 2021 – April 2023, and has a total value of EUR 175,203.