Truth4Youth
Media Literacy and Critical Thinking to Counter (Climate) Disinformation
Duration: February 2026 - January 2028
Coordinator: WIPSEE (France)
Partnership: 16 partners from 16 European countries
CERV-2025-CITIZENS-CIV
Summary:
Disinformation weakens trust, divides communities and distorts public debate, and the climate is one of its favourite topics. TRUTH4YOUTH brings together organisations from across Europe to strengthen young people's media literacy and critical thinking, so they can tell facts from manipulation and take part in public debate with confidence.
An equally important part of the project is youth work. TRUTH4YOUTH trains youth workers as multipliers, developing their competences in line with the European Training Strategy, from digital transformation to facilitating learning and intercultural communication. These youth workers then carry the project's methods into schools, youth centres and online spaces. Finally, the project connects young people directly with decision-makers, so that youth perspectives on disinformation feed into policy.
How the project works:
The project began by looking at what already exists: partners mapped available resources, surveyed young people across partner countries and are preparing a research brief on the climate disinformation narratives that target youth. These findings shape the project's methods, which are developed together with participants in an online co-creation lab and tested in a five-day pilot training of trainers.
From there, the project moves from theory to practice. National training courses prepare youth workers to run local Youth Labs with small groups of 10 to 15 young people. Trained Climate Truth Trainers organise quiz events in schools, youth centres and online, covering everything from greenwashing to climate denial. Alongside this, stakeholder roundtables bring young people and decision-makers together, and partners sign memoranda of understanding to keep the cooperation going. The tools are also tested in Erasmus+ youth exchanges and training courses, shared through webinars and campaigns, and presented at a closing conference in Brussels.
Results:
The main result of the project is the Digital Disciplined Citizenship manual and toolkit, built on five pillars: detecting disinformation and prebunking, counter-narrative storytelling, safe use of AI tools, digital ethics and inclusive dialogue. It is complemented by a supplement pack of quick-start activities developed from participants' feedback.
Young people and youth workers will also be able to use the Disinfo Detective Toolkit, with modules on fact-checking and prebunking, and the Green Disinfo Detective Quiz Challenge, which tests players on 30 climate myths using real and fake visuals. On the policy side, the project will publish a research brief on climate disinformation narratives, a policy brief on youth work against disinformation and a Youth Manifesto written by young people themselves.
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