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Strategic by Design: Building Digital Youth Work Strategy
Strategic by Design: Building Digital Youth Work Strategy
Content
This activity invites youth workers and youth work managers to participate in building digital youth work strategies.
Inspired by Michele Di Paola’s article “A modest proposal: Is it time to develop digital and smart youth work strategies?” and Verke’s Guidelines for Digital Youth Work, participants are encouraged to take concrete steps to develop an intentional approach to digital transformation in youth work.
By completing this activity, you will:
- Understand the importance of digital youth work strategies
- Learn the digital youth work strategy building blocks.
- Collaboratively contribute to the development of a practical, youth-centred digital strategy.
Get inspired
In his proposal, Michele Di Paola highlights the everyday digital practices of youth workers and the growing need to shape intentional and strategic responses. He encourages youth workers and managers to move beyond ad-hoc use of digital tools and towards a grounded, participatory approach to digital strategy. Michele Di Paola proposes the following building blocks:
- Training of Youth Workers
- Access to Devices and Connectivity
- Tackling Inclusion and the Digital Divide
- Developing Our Tools
- Define Funding and Investments
For the digital strategy creation process, Michele di Paola emphasises:
- Co-creation: Involving youth workers and young people as central figures in strategy development.
- Engagement: Ensuring young people are co-creators to impact their digital experiences directly.
The Verke Guidelines for Digital Youth Work complement this by offering eight strategic focus areas:
- The operational culture encourages curiosity and experimentation
- Strategic planning supports long-term development
- A goal-oriented approach and assessment improve the quality of activities
- Resources are targeted at digital youth work
- We ensure the skills and competencies of the work community
- Digital youth work is developed through cooperation
- Digital youth work promotes the inclusion and equality of young people
- Youth work strengthens young people’s media and digital skills
Watch the following video about organisational development for digital youth work:
Take action: activities for different roles
Explore the following role-specific badges to access activities designed to enhance your digital youth work within the organisation: Navigate to a specific badge and complete activities as a youth worker and youth work manager. Involve young people in co-designing digital youth work solutions.
- Youth workers can facilitate the Digital Voice Shaper badge activities to engage young people in reflecting on digital experiences and co-creating ideas for youth-friendly digital strategies.
- The Digital Practice Influencer badge invites youth workers to contribute practice-based insights to strategic development.
- The Digital Strategy Leader badge supports youth work managers in leading and structuring the creation of digital strategies.
Claim open badge recognition
Upon completing this activity, participants can earn badges that recognise:
- Active contribution to digital youth work strategy building;
- Strategic understanding of digital transformation in youth work; and
- Collaborative design of innovative and inclusive youth work practices.
Who created this resource?
This activity is based on Michele Di Paola's “A modest proposal: Is it time to develop digital and smart youth work strategies?” (2023) and the Verke's Guidelines for Digital Youth Work. The Cities of Learning Network members adapted these resources to support the building of digital youth work strategies:
- Awero, Lithuania (Project Lead)
- Breakthrough Foundation, Netherlands
- Curaçao Innovation & Technology Institute (CITI)
- TiPovej! Zavod - Institute for Creative Society, Slovenia
Next steps: Use the insights and artefacts created during this activity to kickstart building a digital youth work strategy. Connect your work to national digital youth work strategies and communities of practice.
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Draft
Strategic by Design: Building Digital Youth Work Strategy
Organisers
Digital Youth Work Resource Hub
Awero not-for-profit organisation manages this platform and develops it together with leading educational organisations. The European Union's programme Erasmus+ granted co-funding for building the first version of this platform. Contact support@awero.org.
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