A double event (Kick-Off meeting & Seminar of Youth Workers) hosted in Tirana, Albania, in the beginning of April (20-22.04.2022) marked the beginning of activities of “Citizen Journalism Academy for Youth” (JOUR-YOU) project, funded by the Erasmus+ Programme!

The Kick-Off meeting was attended by project managers of all partners, who reviewed the objectives, activities, deliverables and expected impact of JOUR-YOU and discussed in depth the partners’ roles and tasks, as well as the management system of the project’s implementation. Moreover, the consortium discussed the dissemination of the project results, monitoring and evaluation and signed internal partner agreements.

In parallel, 17 youth workers from the partner countries participated in the first seminar of JOUR-YOU, which aimed at setting priorities based on the local contexts and young people’s needs for community engagement through new media technologies. Through a wide range of non-formal education activities, such as rolling debates, simulations, interactive games and creative exercises, the youth workers discussed the state of freedom of speech and journalism in their countries, shared their thoughts on citizen journalism and media literacy, identified measures to facilitate media literacy and citizen journalism, and created an action plan for their contribution to the upcoming activities of the project. 

In the next months, the youth workers will prepare Stocktaking and Reflection papers to present the state of journalism and press freedom in their countries, as well as national and international best practices that promote media literacy and citizen journalism, by conducting desk research on the topics of the project.

Thanks to our hosts, People in Focus, the partners also had the chance to get familiar with the recent Albanian history through a walking tour around Tirana!