MEDIA LITERACY AND DIGITAL SAFETY FOR YOUTH AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN UKRAINE

The project is aimed to strengthen the capacity of local actors to recognize, prevent and respond to harmful online content in a waraffected information environment. It focuses on building practical skills in media literacy and digital safety among practitioners working with young people and communities, and on turning these skills into concrete practices in youth work, community support and education. 

Through a combination of training courses, thematic workshops and creative studios, the project helps participants develop simple routines for checking photos, videos and news both when consuming content and before sharing it on social media or messaging apps, improve the everyday protection of devices and accounts, and design practical activities they could implement in their own organizations, youth centers and local communities.

As a result of the project:

✔ Youth workers and youth facilitators learn to recognize the kinds of manipulative content that typically reach their groups, apply a simple step-by-step workflow to check photos, videos and posts before using or sharing them, set basic safety routines and "house rules" for chats and youth spaces, and confidently design and run short, interactive sessions on media resilience and online safety with adolescents and young people.

✔ Representatives of civil society organizations working in local communities increse their capacity to identify disinformation risks and hostile narratives that target their specific constituencies, plan and deliver communication in ways that protect the dignity, privacy and security of conflict-affected people, build practical verification steps into their daily information work, and respond in a more structured and confident way when their organizations or beneficiaries face online attacks, smear campaigns or harmful exposure.

✔ Teachers, trainers and non-formal education providers learn to weave core media literacy and digital safety themes into lessons, non-formal activities and project work, adapt exercises and case studies to different age groups and learning needs, guide ageappropriate discussion of sensitive topics such as war-related content, propaganda and hate speech, and use simple reflective tools to help students understand their own media habits and emotional reactions while working together with their target audiences to support safer learning environments.

✔ Local activists and youth leaders get competencies to plan and produce engaging digital content that is fact-aware and does not amplify harmful messages, integrate quick credibility checks into their everyday posting routines, moderate comments and discussions in a way that reduces escalation and protects those who are targeted, and design small, concrete awareness actions or micro-campaigns on media resilience and online safety that they can implement with their peers and online audiences.

By the end of the implementation period, the project contributes to a more resilient and safer media environment at local level. Participants report increased confidence in checking information before sharing it, in talking openly with young people and community members about manipulation and online risks, and in reacting constructively to incidents of disinformation, hate speech or online attacks. Organizations involved in the project integrate elements of the developed curriculum, tools and rules into their regular work, ensuring that media literacy and digital safety are addressed not as a one-off topic but as a continuous part of youth work, community support and educational practice.