Exploring youth engagement in a digital age

Month of Action - 21st March - 17th April

Every year since 2008 Youth Work Online has run some sort of conference or event - a chance for everyone exploring digital dimensions of work with young people to get together and shared ideas, examples and inspiration.

This year, we want to do something more: supporting local action and more focussed national meetings - as well as our usual unConference. And that's where you come in...

1) Register to be part of the Month of Action - we'll still share updates on the month with all the members of Youth Work Online - but make sure you get yourself on the dedicated list to get advanced notice of events and opportunities. (The registration form also includes a quick survey to help us focus the month well!) If you only do one thing - do this! REGISTER HERE. (You don't have to be a member of Youth Work Online to register...)

2) Look at the local and national events and activities below - which do you want to be part of? Add a comment with your thoughts. We'll be preparing resources to support the most popular activities. Keep checking back for the latest list of activities...

3) Join the discussions - over in the forum here to share what you want to do in the Youth Work Online Month of Action and be part of the discussions during the month about how we should develop Youth Work Online in the future.

Local Action

Focussed Action

Future focus

You could:

Run a social media surgery for young people and/or staff & volunteers. We've got one planned in Edinburgh on the 11th April.
Run a workshop, session or youth club night on online identity.
Write a case study about digital youth work in your area to share with others.
Organise local 'Digital Youth' awards to celebrate the ways projects and young people are using technology in positive ways.
Come up with you own ideas for digital youth work action...

We'll be:

Launching the month with a seminar on youth participation and social media on the 21st March.
Mapping out all the resources, policies and case studies on digital youth work that we can find in London or the 13th April (invitation only event).
Holding a meeting on the 'Digital Skills for Youth Work' with the Social Policy and Social Work Subject (SWAP) centre in Southampton on 4th April, and with other partners in Falkirk on the 11th April.
Asking what the future holds? What technologies are on the horizon? What new youth practices do we need to know?
Running online chats each week of the month.
Inviting everyone to a Saturday unConference in London (May 21st)

All through the month we'll be exploring what needs to be done to take digital skills from the margins of work with young people into the mainstream.

Do you need new resources? A national organisation? Local networks?

Who is leading on the development of digital youth work? And who needs to be leading more?

How can we connect better with action across Europe?

We'll present our findings at the unConference in May - and we'll be asking you to get involved in helping Youth Work Online take the next steps...

Sponsorship

The Month of Action has been made possible by an Nominet Better Net Award grant, given through UnLtd to help cover expenses (room hire; travel; etc.) for a volunteer planning team.

We're inviting sponsors to help support the event to help us increase our impact. Look out for a sponsors pack soon - but if you want to find out more about how you can support an event reaching 1000s of professionals working with young people, get in touch.

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