The team of AlwaysON for Youth project and Digital Youth Work Community of Learning is organizing a series of online events with guest speakers, called “Shaping Digital Inclusion”. 

The first event will be dedicated to “Digital Inclusion of Rural Youth People”, with speaker Cosmin Catana – a certified youth worker and experienced trainer from Romania. The event will take place on 30th May 2022, 4 pm UK / 5 pm CET / 6 pm EET. The event will be easily accessed through the social media platforms of partner organizations.

The series of online events “Shaping Digital Inclusion” will bring us to the most urgent topics around Europe. The fundamental processes for sustainable and equal development of European countries include purposeful work WITH different target youth groups and FOR their inclusion. Youth between the ages of 15 to 24 representing one-quarter of the world’s population are threatened by poor employment prospects, job quality, health outcomes, access to education, and economic opportunities. 

Youth-working with rural young people, youth participation and how rural youth could benefit from its use in development projects and initiatives, what is internationalization, why volunteering is important and how motivational it could be… these are some of the questions we will try to search for answers, looking deeper into the practices applied by a local Romanian NGO, called Curba de Cultura and its founder Mr. Cosmin Catana. 

Curba de Cultura is aiming at providing safe and secure spaces for young people’s leisure time in order to facilitate personal development with an emphasis on non-cognitive skills, as well as providing participation opportunities for young people, advocating youth rights.

We will meet  with Mr. Cosmin Catana – a certified youth worker who has a 22 years experience in youth work and volunteer coordination, 17 years experience in training and 18 years in project management and project implementation in non-governmental organizations. Mr Catana is actively working at developing the capacity of the youth sector locally, nationally and internationally building a strong partnership and network of organizations sharing common goals. 

We will speak about his work, the difficult pandemic times, new methods and digital youth work practices which were included in the daily work of the organisation.

Digital Youth Work Community of Learning  is a component of the  “#AlwaysOn for Youth” Strategic Partnership for Youth project by Federatia Young Men’s Christian Associations România (YMCA România), as coordinator and Young Initiative Association (AYI), Sdrujenie “Nadejda-CRD” – Bulgaria (NCRD), The Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service – France (CCIVS ) and the Alliance Europeenne des YMCA – Belgium (YMCA Europe), as partners. The project is co-funded by the European Union through the Erasmus Plus program.