Me as a change-maker: DigiSport programme explores digital well-being of youth through sport
ENGSO Youth’s cooperation with Bosön, Sweden successfully continued with 30 young leaders taking part in the DigiSport International Activity, which is funded by the Council of Europe through the European Youth Foundation.
The programme aims to explore, understand and raise awareness of the importance of Digital Health for young people using sport as a tool to reach this goal. Young participants enrolled in sessions, workshops and activities that supported them to develop non-formal educational workshops for the awareness raising on Digital health and well-being.
The main theme of the programme: digital well-being of youth through grassroots sport
The trend of accelerated adoption of digital technologies is already a reality or is emerging in a number of countries across Europe. Young people’s decisions, lifestyles and behaviour are often shaped by exposure to digital realms. Considering that a number of online platforms are built to boost engagement, young people are often unaware of the disruptive influence their excessive use has on digital well-being. The younger population, as early adopters of these services, is most susceptible to this impact, which may lead to a variety of problematic mental or even physical conditions amongst them.
The main aim of DigiSport international activity is to enable digital well-being for Youth through non-formal education at the European grassroots sport level.
“At the beginning of the project I was not so familiar with the DigiSport topic, I feel really confident now after the week. We had an opportunity to speak and work with amazing, educated and inspiring people, I feel the connection and I am happy that I could gain so much experience for others!”, – shared some of the participants during the evaluation form.
The programme, led by ENGSO Youth former Young Delegate Aladdin Rifai, kicked off on 1 June 2023 with getting to know each other activities and right after the sporty evening activities, the programme continued with a particular focus on the topic of digitalisation: its definition, digital education tools and the impact digitalisation have on today’s youth health.
During the next days, participants explored different Digital education tools and methods, specifically focusing on Council of Europe’s Digital Citizenship Education handbook. This guide helped the young participants to prepare and shape the non-formal education workshops and materials for youth leaders and sport and youth organisations on Digital Health and access to social and digital rights in the sports and youth sectors.
Sessions followed an introduction to advocacy actions. “Me as a change-maker” was the main theme of the last day, where follow-up actions which will be implemented by participants in their local communities were created together with created workshops.
As a follow-up action online DigiSport seminar will be organised beginning of July.
Besides the educational activities and workshops, the programme also included teambuilding and networking activities such as movie night, picnics, sports, and more.
