CITIZEN JOURNALISM ACADEMY FOR YOUTH

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Citizen Journalism Academy for Youth

JOUR-YOU

The 21st century demands raising skills and competences to respond to fast technological development and a shifting digital realm. Media literacy is defined as the ability to access, analyse, evaluate and communicate information and messages in various forms and online platforms. Digital skills are an essential component in using digital devices, communication applications, and networks to access and manage information. They are critical for job creation and social inclusion, enabling people to create and share digital content, communicate and collaborate, and at the same time, solve issues effectively by learning and participating in social activities at a larger scale. Young people are exposed to mass media daily; they watch television and movies, read books, newspapers and magazines online, listen to music and explore the internet. This broad spectrum of exposure to media outlets leads to the need for education about media literacy and digital skills.

JOUR-YOU aims to develop and implement innovative methods and practices to foster inclusive activities and promote common values by enhancing the media literacy and digital skills and competences of young people. The project will build the capacity of youth NGOs to use innovative tools and practices, which encourage community engagement of young people through new media technologies. The project aims at developing youth work through the application of training materials and NFIL methods to enhance the critical thinking, media literacy, digital and leadership skills of youth and youth workers.

The project consortium from 7 Programme and Partner countries will implement a set of capacity-building activities to reach the set objectives. They include a seminar of youth workers, training materials on citizen journalism (online course, training toolkit, best practices guide), international and local training activities on citizen journalism for Youth Workers and young people in each country and international competition.

List of participating organisations

FONDATSIA ZA PREDPRIEMACHESTVO, KULTURA I OBRAZOVANIE, Bulgaria
OMILOS GIA TIN EPIXEIRIMATIKOTITA KAI TIN KOINONIKI OIKONOMIA, Greece
EURO SUD, Italy
People in Focus, Albania
East & West Center for Sustainable Development, Jordan
Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights, Egypt
L’ASSOCIATION EURO-MEDITERRANEENNE DES ECHANGES, VOLONTARIATS, EVENEMENTS Tunisia

Duration: 01-02-2022 – 31-01-2024

The project is funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ program.

JOUR-YOU project kicks off in Tirana, Albania

Between 20 and 22 April 2022, a kick-off meeting and a seminar for youth workers were held in Tirana, Albania, as part of the Citizen Journalism Academy for Youth (JOUR-YOU) project, funded by the Erasmus+ Programme. The kick-off meeting was attended by all partners: Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Culture and Education (Coordinator, Bulgaria), Entrepreneurship and Social Economy Group (Greece), MAAT for Peace, Development and Human Rights Association (Egypt), People in Focus (Albania), EUROSUD (Italy), East and West Center for Sustainable Development (Jordan) and EURO-MED EVE (Tunisia).

During the three days of the meeting, the partners in the consortium got acquainted with the project’s main aims, objectives, activities and expected results. The consortium discussed the dissemination of the project results, monitoring and evaluation and signed internal partner agreements.

Simultaneously, 17 youth workers from the partner countries participated in a seminar to share their thoughts on citizen journalism and media literacy. By participating in non-formal activities, such as simulations, interactive games and debates, the youth workers discussed the state of freedom of speech and journalism in their countries. They created possible scenarios for the upcoming activities under the project. In the next months, the youth workers will prepare Stocktaking and Reflection papers to present the state of journalism in their countries by conducting desk research on the topics of the project.

Thanks to our hosts, People in Focus, we were also able to get familiar with the recent Albanian history through a walking tour around Tirana.

1st JOUR-YOU Newsletter is now live!

Check out our first newsletter with the latest project updates and don’t hesitate to get in touch for more info.

International Training in Athens, Sofia and Bari successfully implemented!

“JOUR-YOU: International Training for Youth Workers” was successfully implemented! Throughout the project, the youth workers traveled in 3 countries ( Greece, Bulgaria and Italy) exploring different non formal methodologies and piloting our Toolkit!

From 20 to 23 March, Bari hosted an event on European and regional youth policies, which brought together over 20 participants including young people, youth workers and policy makers, representatives of various national youth associations. The training course in Bari was the final stage of the Erasmus Project “Citizen Journalism Academy for Youth JOUR-YOU” funded by the European Commission Youth Department and coordinated by the EUROSUD association of Triggiano in Italy.

The participants of the event spent the training days within the space of the ‘ETS Casa delle donne del Mediterraneo’ where various guests and speakers were the protagonists. Among the guests we welcomed the journalist Roberto Maggi who reported his experience by concretely exemplifying the possible mishaps in which the information may incur. Dr. Lucia Laterza representing the House who aimed the intervention at female knowledge and gender policies developed in the ETS and with the ETS in continuous growth and evolution. Casa delle donne del Mediterraneo is increasingly a point of reference for women’s, political, humanitarian associations, aimed at health and well-being, the environment, young people, and all women, including non-members, who find there the ideal place for a collective and individual growth. The project partners are from different European, North African and Middle Eastern countries. In particular FECEFECE from Bulgaria, EKO from Greece, EUROSUD Italy, People in Focus from Tirana Albania, East & West Center for Sustainable Development from the Kingdom of Jordan, the Maat for Peace association from Cairo Egypt and AMDED from Tunisia.

Participatory journalism is an approach to communication that directly involves citizens in the production and sharing of news and information about their community. In this neighborhood participatory journalism project, young people are involved in recounting realities and experiences, identifying and narrating phenomena of social and cultural unease through a mode of information-action that passes through reality, the press and the web.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM ACADEMY FOR YOUTH IN SOFIA BULGARIA

The training course “Citizen Journalism Academy for Youth” consisted on the improvement of the media literacy knowledge and was addressed to the new generation of youth who would become active and seresponsible citizen journalism reporters.

The location of the project was Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria. The first day, after a nice breakfast on the hotel’s terrace, a general introduction of the topics and themes was made. We understood schedules and also the people involved with us in the project.

We worked in an international context that included interesting people from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Egypt, Tunisia, and Jordan. The facilitators started the activities with a brainstorming that helped us to understand more deeply some important keywords.

On the second day, we focused our attention on the sources of information. We actively participated through a small presentation reporting a problem of our country, being aware to use proper, official and reliable references and data. A lot of conversation started from there about shared issues in the different countries. In the meantime, we had the opportunity and the time to visit the city of Sofia.

We explore the vibrant streets, the churches, mosques, and synagogues. The capital of Bulgaria seemed very safe and accessible and the coexistence of different religions, architectures and cultures makes the city even more interesting to explore. The third day, we talked about journalistic criticism and the 6SA model for writing a correct article. It was really fun to choose one of the possible topics and make up a story.

Each of us created a very original narration. It was interesting to notice the differences and the similarities in how we write and express ourselves.

At the fourth day, we discussed about cognitive mechanisms and about NLP, Neurolinguistic Programs involved in the comprehension of articles and facts. It was fascinating!

And then, the fifth and last day arrived. It was a bittersweet moment, with a lot of thankfulness and a little bit of sadness too. We received the certificates and took some pictures together.

After that, everyone returned to his own room and packed the last things before the departure. Leaving Sofia brought up a lot of thoughts and feelings.

We talked about how it had been a great experience even for those who do not belong to the journalistic world. It was actually nice to share information on the topic in relation to one’s own country and it was also very very nice to share habits and customs in the intercultural dinner.

We Hope we’ll meet us together for more and more Erasmus projects!

CITIZEN JOURNALISM ACADEMY FOR YOUTH

CITIZEN JOURNALISM ACADEMY FOR YOUTH IN SOFIA BULGARIA

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