Engaging young people in community-building and media production in an interconnected world is crucial for a sustainable and inclusive society. To address this need, the European Youth Press and INEDNET Armenia together with European Dialogue, Scambeuropei, Infinity Greece, and Universitat Ramon Llull Fundacio joined forces to implement an Erasmus+ Youth Exchange initiative called "Youth Will Move It: Practice Exchanges for Active Citizenship" on 2-13 October 2023.
This project took place in Vanadzor, Armenia, and brought together motivated youth from six partner countries, Germany, Slovakia, Italy, Greece, and Spain, along with Armenia. The participants, aged 18 to 30, shared a common goal: to enhance civic engagement, develop media-making skills, and raise awareness about challenges facing young people because of conflicts. Media researcher Harutyun Tsatryan and youth worker Diana Yeghiazaryan from INEDNET were the main facilitators of the project.
“It was important to share the best possible experience that participants can ever have in Armenia during this historic, but at the same time tragic moment. We started by building the bridges for cooperation, mapping our realities of media making and later participants were interested in becoming more skillful content creators”, shared Harutyun Tsatryan, who led sessions on digital storytelling and fact-checking during the educational activity.
The program focused on two key areas: active citizenship and media production. Its main objectives were to improve reporting skills, expand awareness beyond the EU borders, learn about conflicts through the example of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and empower young storytellers through hands-on experiences. At the end of the program, young people built several teams and worked on 8-10 topics. During the last three days of the activity, they started preparing articles for the EYP flagship magazine Orange. Soon those articles will be published online.
“The activity had a number of goals, including promoting deliberative conversations about inclusivity, sensitive language, migration, wars, conflicts and human rights”, said Diana Yeghiazaryan, a youth worker and human rights educator.
Additionally, the project attempted to increase public awareness of the restrictions on free expression during wars and armed conflicts. Importantly, the reasonably developed program aimed at preventing hate speech and extremism by employing media creation to promote international communication and understanding, which were reached at the end of the event.
The project’s goal to cultivate critical thinking and develop cross-cultural skills was achieved. An atmosphere that encourages creativity and quality in human rights and democracy-related storytelling was created by the INEDNET team members.
One highlight of the program was the creation of videos and scenario-based activities. Each morning, participants produced "breaking news" reports, providing a fun and engaging way to share their experiences with others.
Overall, the program met all its goals and objectives, offering participants an enjoyable and effective learning experience. They produced various media content, such as videos, articles, posters, and sketches, and also had the opportunity to network and learn about each other's cultures.
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