Making digital youth participation easy: launch of refreshed platform OPIN.ME

Digital youth participation empowers young people to become active citizens from the local to the European level. However, the positive effects only unfold when the participation process is run professionally – to use digital tools is not enough to inspire young people, youth organisations and administrations to collaborate. We are pleased to announce the launch of refreshed platform OPIN.ME, which improves the lives of both previous users and anyone is wondering how to run a successful digital youth participation project.

Potential project initiators often lack the experience, personnel, and financial resources to plan and conduct a successful digital participation project. This is a reason why first-time pilot projects may fail due to the many unknown challenges and pitfalls, leading to frustration among participants. The Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership project “DIGY – Digital youth participation made easy” tackles this problem by delivering qualification and capacity building for initiators of digital youth participation projects: “Training and qualification measures on the topic of e-participation in the youth field have been in demand for years from municipalities, youth organisations and educational institutions. Processes initiators need training and support to carry out a successful project. Due to this, we provide e-learning materials on the freely accessible platform OPIN (www.opin.me)”, – says Eva Shepherd, Research Fellow of nexus Institute, which is a leading partner organisation of the DIGY project.

The new OPIN platform stays as a professional online toolbox for digital youth participation available in 10 European languages and includes unique software components and tools. The best practice examples, passionate community members and upcoming e-learning materials make digital youth participation easy for newbies and beginners: “These materials are aimed at initiators who are implementing a digital youth participation project for the first time. OPIN will have an extra self-learning area where initiators and interested practitioners can find short texts, videos and podcasts on all relevant topics that they encounter when planning and implementing a project”, – shares Eva Shepherd.

Innovative solutions are changing the concept of democratic participation and empowering young people to be active citizens. We invite you to experience the new OPIN platform and discover the ways to start your first e-participation project or be inspired by digital participation community members.

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