EmpoweringYou project: encouraging youth civic participation in the digital era

“Empowering you: empowerment of young EU citizens through a gamified virtual collaboration platform for political and civic participation” is a European project which focuses on promoting empowerment, active citizenship of young people and inclusive, open and innovative education, training and youth work, embedded in the digital era.

Recently, the project team conducted a literature review on the pedagogical models for fostering civic participation of young persons with the use of platforms in non-formal learning environments, and researched the conventional means used for fostering civic participation of young persons in 6 different countries (Cyprus, Romania, United Kingdom, Italy, Greece and Spain).

A Transnational Analysis was produced in order to draw concrete recommendations for the development of a user-friendly, adaptable and widely accessible online platform.

The project’s research has shown that the use of gamified platforms for developing civic participation of young people has not been adequately explored in the analysed countries. This gap offers the consortium of the EmpoweringYou project an opportunity of being the first successful experience at European level. An opportunity that we will capitalise on to its fullest extent.

Moreover, research has shown that among the main challenges for developing such a gamified platform is the lack of motivation or interest of young persons in participating in civic life. To this end, the Consortium has considered the common aspects of some of the successful civic participation games worldwide, such as raising awareness about political and social circumstances and creating characters in the learning platform who can serve as role models for young people.

Last but not least, since serious concern has been evidenced among young people from most of the participating countries regarding unemployment, along with the situations of NEET youth (Neither in Employment nor Education or Training), the EmpoweringYou online platform will put emphasis on highlighting the importance of volunteering and soft-skills building, in order to contribute to the acquisition of knowledge and skills of young people related to civic participation, as this can strongly improve their employability.

The analysis of data, suggestions and recommendations for the development of a user-friendly, adaptable and widely accessible civic participation and capacity building online platform for young persons can be found via the following link.