The Erasmus+ project #YouthInfo: Future Youth Information Toolbox kick off took place on 12-14 September in Vilnius, Lithuania. For the next two years, 9 partners from 8 different countries will work together to try and increase the quality and outreach of youth information services.

This will be done by creating and applying user-friendly youth information methods, which will be identified by evidence-based research and piloted at local level. Peer-to-peer youth information educators will also be involved.

The project was created due to the lack of evidence-based research in the field of youth information, which blocks the development of the sector. With this in mind, research will be carried out to identify youth information needs, trends, and most relevant topics. This survey will be compared and contrasted with an ERYICA survey which was carried out in 2013, and, perhaps most innovatively, will use future foresight methodology to identify a strategic direction for youth information, something that has never been done before. Youth information structures from across Europe will be invited to disseminate the survey among young users (and non-users) of their services in the course of this autumn.

Using the results of the research and the future foresight, three user-friendly, evidence and future-based youth information methods will be developed and piloted at local level.
For the sustainability of the project, a peer-to-peer training course will be developed and peer teams will be organised in each country.

At the end of the project, a multiplier event will be organised. This will be tailored for political awareness building at local, national and European level for the further support of youth information services in participating countries, particularly those who require it the most.

Future youth information and counselling: building on information needs and trends (survey report)
http://www.creativitas.lt/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Final-Building-on-Information-Needs-and-Trends.pdf

Executive summary: Future youth information toolbox foresight activities looking into 2030
http://www.creativitas.lt/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Executive-Summary_v5.pdf

Manual for foresight in youth information
http://www.creativitas.lt/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/v03_Youth-info_brochure_200x240mm.pdf

Peer-to-peer in youth information
http://www.creativitas.lt/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/v03_Peer-to-peer_digital-book.pdf

Widén, Gunilla (2018). Das Informationsverhalten Jugendlicher. IJAB journal, 11(2), 12.
https://www.ijab.de/uploads/tx_ttproducts/datasheet/ijab-journal-2-190121-screen_02.pdf

Widén, Gunilla (2019). Miten nuorten tietokäyttäytyminen muuttuu seuraavan 10 vuoden aikana? Puheenvuoro – Koordinaatti (15.2.2019).
http://www.koordinaatti.fi/fi/puheenvuoro/future-yi-toolbox

Widén, G. and Karim, M. (2018). The challenge of digital divide and diversity in future youth information work. In: Hongxiu, L. Et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Seventh Conference on Well-Being In the Information Society: Fighting Inequalities, Turku: TUCS. (TUCS Lecture Notes; 28). Pp. 91-95.
http://www.utupub.fi/handle/10024/145816