Enhancing Media Literacy and Critical Thinking of Youth to Counter (Climate) Disinformation

forthcoming

Through the training and empowerment of 100 youth workers, TRUTH4YOUTH engages over 1,700 young people across Europe to become resilient digital citizens and active defenders of democratic values. The project bridges the gap between the risks of climate misinformation, online disinformation, and the urgent need for informed, critical civic engagement among youth. Youth workers and young people are equipped with digital resilience skills, fact-checking techniques, and participatory civic tools, helping them recognize, counter, and prevent information manipulation, especially in the climate and sustainability fields. Participants will co-create counter-narratives, practice pre-bunking techniques, lead peer-learning initiatives, and take part in Living Labs that simulate real-world civic challenges. TRUTH4YOUTH fosters gender-sensitive and inclusive participation, ensuring that girls, boys, and gender-diverse youth equally access safe, empowering spaces for dialogue, innovation, and leadership. It promotes a Europe-wide culture of digital rights, critical thinking, and democratic resilience. Throughout the project, young people will connect through a dedicated online interactive Community platform, enabling continued learning, storytelling, and civic action beyond the project’s lifespan. TRUTH4YOUTH’s dynamic structure includes three international training courses, three cascaded series of local multiplier workshops, over 16 Living Labs and myth-busting challenges, a youth bootcamp on digital citizenship, a transnational Experts Working Group, a European survey on youth digital competences, national stakeholder roundtables, an online showcase webinar, and a European Final Conference. In total, the project delivers 14 interconnected events and over 120 concrete activities, empowering young Europeans to become critical, creative, and courageous actors for a more democratic and digitally resilient Europe.