“E-mpACT: Youth for inclusive e-education” is a three-year project focusing on addressing the youth needs during and post covid-19 pandemic, addressing digitalization, non-formal education and international solidarity. E-mpACT aims to raise awareness in youth work by examining the pandemic’s impact on non-formal education and international solidarity.
Participants of this project are analysing the social impact and youth worker’s perceptions of the challenges of digital literacy, to advocate for an accessible youth work in relation to the pandemic and solidarity policy with neighbouring countries of the EU and different regions in the world.
This project wants to ensure that future policies on digitalization consider the specific needs and aspirations of young people from marginalized communities, and address challenges and barriers they face in active e-participation. E-mpACT involves young people/youth partners from 8 countries and 4 continents and is being led by IFM-SEI.
The project so far
In May 2022 the project saw a Kick off meeting at Woodcraft Folk’s Cudham Centre which involved in-depth planning of the overall project goals and outputs with participants from Woodcraft Folk and international partners. Participants came together to further their learning about the project at Common Ground international camp in August 2022.
Young participants and project officers took part in E-learning during September 2022 which looked at the impact the pandemic had on youth work and what engagement with online youth work participants have had. We explored the positive and negative impact online youth work has had across the world.
In October 2022, 2 young participants from Woodcraft Folk joined international counter parts in Slovenia for workshops around ‘what makes the perfect trainer?’ looking at online and offline qualities of different methods of facilitation and what resources trainers need to be the best trainers. The group also discussed digital activism and promoting causes through certain platforms such as Tik Tok, Instagram, Twitter etc.
In November, another 2 young participants and our ESC comms volunteer took part in a co-design workshop in Berlin focusing on how to undertake research on and offline and different techniques to do this. Woodcraft Folk participant Lilith (17) said at the end of the trip “I didn’t know anything about research, now I have a pretty good understanding”.
Over 2023 the project continued to explore different ways of delivering youth work. In April Young Leader Training took place at Woodcraft Folk’s Heightgate Centre. We brought young leaders age 18-25 to engage with an introduction to safeguarding/risk assessment, participate in workshops around digital youth work, take part in mental health and physical first aid training as well as this participants share skills and look at the basics of being a leader. Find out more about the weekend here.
In December 2023 participants from Woodcraft Folk and the other project partner organisations traveled to Zimbabwe to develop an educational toolkit full of information and activities around digital and online youth work.
Upcoming project activity
2024 will see each project partner develop a policy paper on a subject they will continue work on. In July a seminar will take place in Peru focusing on Advocacy and Capacity building. The end of the year will see roundtables organised by Woodcraft Folk to bring together other organisations and projects focusing on recovery of youth work and supporting young people’s mental health after COVID.
Check out the E-mpACT toolkit which has been developed by project partners focusing on impactful online and digital youth work here.
To find out more about the project or to get involved get in touch to lauren@woodcraft.org.uk
