Connection Blueprint Toolkit
Developed collaboratively by Selfmade and 18 youth workers from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Poland, Romania and Cyprus during the Erasmus+ Training Course Connection Blueprint: Digital Tools for Youth Workers, held in Fundão, Portugal. Participant contributions were reviewed, edited and adapted by the Selfmade team.
Authors
Silvia Ana Maria Patru
Ainhoa Trujillo Muñoz
Giorgos Christophorou
Stephanie Kourtellou
Krzysztof Ryskala
Tomás Marchão Cavalheiro
Alexandre F. Fernandes Bento
Ricardo Marques
Hugo Rodrigues
Dinis Gonçalves
Sara Brescacin
Giovanni Paris
Mario Gimeno
Irina Iordache
Eduardo Daniel de Carvalho Grilo
Luís Neves
Ana Faias
Pedro Mogas Gil
Partners
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
How this Toolkit Works
Why Digital Youth Work Matters
Organizational Outreach and Digital Tools
Managing Youth Projects
Responsible AI Use and Prompting
Building AI Agents
Practical Uses, Tools, Activities and Resources
Project Website: https://digitaltools4youthwork.eu/
Digital Youth Work
Digital youth work means proactively using or addressing digital media and technology in youth work. It can take place face-to-face, online or in hybrid settings and is guided by the same goals, values, principles and ethics as youth work.
A simplified competence overview used in this toolkit
Visibility, Outreach & Youth Engagement
Meet young people where they already are, most often, in digital spaces. Tools like Instagram, TikTok, Canva, CapCut and YouTube turn online platforms into spaces for learning, storytelling, and participation.
Campaigns & Awareness
Promote activities and raise awareness on social issues through engaging newsletters (email), content / community (social media), blogs and communities
Creative Content
Canva, Gamma, Napkin and CapCut empower young people to tell their own stories and ideas visually.
Meaningful Participation
Digital tools like Mentimeter, Canva and Padlet turn passive scrolling into active engagement and learning with pedagogical resources.
Visibility is not just posting, it is turning youth experiences into learning, participation, storytelling and community impact with intention.
Key Starter Tools
Use each tool for a clear outcome, not because it is trendy but because it serves your purpose/functions
Presentations & Design Tasks & Projects Audience & Education
Canva, Gamma, Figma
Use for: Decks, toolkits, presentations, infopacks, posters, whiteboards, carousel, certificates, toolkits, infographics, social media posts and visual resources.
Best moment: Recruitment, training materials, dissemination, participant outputs and project visibility.
Safeguard: Risk of generic design, low readability, image rights and weak accessibility. Use clear hierarchy, strong contrast, simple language, consent-approved images and consistent branding.
Starter task: Ask participants to create one carousel explaining what they learned from a project activity.
Notion, Google Workspace, Taskade
Use for: Organization and coordination of tasks, records, project dashboard, documents, folder systems, forms, calendars, meetings, notes, databases, team coordination, files, sharing and tracking project resources/knowledge/systems.
Best moment: Coordination with partners, volunteer and participant management, evidence storage, team operations and long-term project tracking.
Safeguard: Risk of tool overload, messy structure, duplicated files and wrong sharing access. Use one main hub, clear naming, restricted sharing, simple templates/ organization and one owner per task.
Starter task: Create a project dashboard with tasks, deadlines, contacts, procedures, files, risks, and evidence folders.
Mentimeter, Wayground
Use for: Live participation inputs, polls, quizzes, Q&A, word clouds, formative assessment, participation data, interactive sessions and instant anonymous feedback and insights.
Best moment: Icebreakers, energizers, needs assessment, learning checks, debriefings and final evaluation.
Safeguard: Risk of public exposure, competition pressure, shallow answers and digital exclusion. Avoid sensitive questions, allow anonymous input, use team mode and provide offline alternatives.
Starter task: Run a live quiz on critical thinking and digital safety, then debrief wrong answers as learning moments.
From Needs to Impact
No tool should be used without a clear output, risk check and learning purpose.
Types of content for reaching youth
Content that reaches youth must be short, visual, real and action-oriented. Every post needs one message, one emotion and one clear action.
Organizing Work & Managing Projects
Use project tools to define roles, deadlines, files, risks and evidence. Digital tools keep NGOs work structured, collaborative and on track, especially in international programmes like Erasmus+:
Task Management
Trello, Notion & Google Workspace help assign roles, track progress, and meet deadlines.
Document Sharing
Google Drive keeps files accessible, organized and up to date across teams and borders.
Scheduling
Google Calendar and Outlook make planning meetings and activities effortless.
Communication & Team Collaboration
Communication is at the heart of youth work. The right platforms enable fast, inclusive, and cross-border collaboration. Choose one main official channel, one informal channel and one file hub. Clear communication prevents confusion, exclusion and missed deadlines.
Remote Teamwork
Zoom, Google Meet/Workspace & Microsoft Teams connect teams across countries.
Day-to-Day Messaging
WhatsApp, Discord & Telegram keep communication fast and accessible.
Digital Map
Miro, Canva, give communication and information an organized and infinite expression within your team and collaborators
Participant Management & Experience
Your Participants and Associates play an important role in any organization, especially NGOs, therefore creating spaces for connection is vital to engage more young people.
Create a Community
Creating a digital community is vital to keep your youth audience always connected to your opportunities.
Practical digital community examples include: Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, an online forum on your website.
Collecting Information
Use Google Forms and Typeform to gather only key participant data that you need and insights: identity, emergency contact, dietary needs, access needs, travel details, consent and learning expectations, insights. This reduces errors and helps tailor activities to each person's needs, in line with Erasmus+ inclusion priorities.
Evaluation & Impact Evidence
Define a clear output for your activity, as it will be a vital part of your learning evidence.
Infopacks
An Infopack tells everything needed about your project/event, is the participant's roadmap, your learners get ready for your project even before they have heard your voice with Infopacks, that are far more than just information documents, they prepare participants, reduce anxiety, prevent misunderstandings and improve project quality.
Infopacks should include: objectives, venue, travel, daily program, rules, safety, contacts, reimbursement, cultural preparation, packing list and learning expectations
Use Canva/Gamma for lively slides and ChatGPT/Claude to create dynamic websites as infopacks
The design should be simple and clear, as the following examples:
If you have partners, you should create a more detailed infopack just for your partners. Examples of information typically included in a partner infopack but not required in the version shared with participants:
Partner Infopacks
If you have partners, you should create a more detailed infopack just for your partners. Examples of information typically included in a partner infopack but not required in the version shared with participants:
Practical Project Digital Workflow
This workflow can support efficiency and quality when used responsibly
Ethical & Responsible Use of AI in Youth Work
Artificial intelligence is increasingly used in youth work, but it must always be used responsibly. AI can support planning, writing and adaptation, but it must never replace professional judgement or human decision-making. Youth workers remain responsible for safeguarding, relationships, final decisions and the accuracy of outputs.
Accuracy
Is the information correct and up to date? AI can sometimes get facts wrong, always verify facts, data and the sources.
Age Level
Is the language and content appropriate for the young people you're working with?
Respectful Language
Is the content inclusive, non-discriminatory, and respectful of all identities, backgrounds and privacy?
Inclusion & Safety
Does the content avoid harm and stereotypes or bias? Check always for anything that could be distressing, triggering, or unsafe.
GDPR: Minimum Rules for Digital Youth Work
The GDPR applies whenever an organisation processes personal data. The organisation remains responsible for how data is collected, used, stored, shared and deleted.
Purpose, Lawful Basis & Transparency
Define why the data is needed, identify an appropriate lawful basis and provide participants with a clear privacy notice. Consent is one possible lawful basis, not a universal requirement.
Data Minimisation
Collect only the personal data that is necessary. Avoid collecting health information or other special-category data unless it is genuinely required and the appropriate conditions and safeguards are in place.
Approved Tools
Use tools and platforms approved by your organisation. Check who processes the data, where it is stored or transferred and what data-protection conditions apply.
Access & Security
Restrict access to the people who genuinely need the information and use appropriate security measures.
Retention
Set clear retention periods. Keep personal data only for as long as necessary or legally required, and then securely delete or anonymise it.
AI, Photos & Personal Stories
Do not upload personal, special-category or confidential information to public AI tools. Before publishing identifiable photos, recordings or personal stories, use an appropriate lawful basis and provide clear information. Check copyright and image rights separately.
When in doubt, follow your organisation’s privacy policy and consult the person responsible for data protection.
Digital Accessibility & Inclusion
Digital Safety & Wellbeing
Digital youth work must protect attention, privacy, dignity and wellbeing. Online participation should never expose, shame, manipulate or exclude young people. It means a healthy, balanced and safe use of digital spaces, devices and platforms.
AI Platforms Used in Youth Work
These are the leading AI "chat to create" platforms, each one lets you type in a request and get useful content back, from session plans to icebreakers to explanations for young people.
ChatGPT - Planning/Writing
One of the most widely used AI tools. Great for writing, planning, and generating ideas quickly.
Claude - Long-form writing and analysis
Known for nuanced, thoughtful responses. Excellent for longer content and sensitive topics.
Gemini - Google workflows and multitask
Google's AI platform. Integrates well with Google Workspace tools you may already use.
Perplexity AI and Comet - Research with sources and multitask
Combines AI with real-time search and execution. Useful for research, finding up-to-date information and long tasks.
Use these tools for: Thinking, writing, planning, coding, analysing, simplifying and brainstorming.
Best moment: Session plans, reports, emails, infopacks, reflection questions and content adaptation.
Output: Drafts, summaries, plans, scripts, checklists, explanations and improved texts.
Safeguard: Risk of wrong facts, bias, generic answers and privacy issues. Add context, use source documents, give examples, verify facts, check age level and never upload sensitive youth data.
Before involving young people, check each platform’s minimum-age requirements, terms of use, guardian-consent requirements and data-protection conditions. Use only accounts and tools approved by your organisation.
What Is a Prompt?
A prompt is the instruction you give to an AI tool to tell it what you want and need for the best output.
Think of it like giving a clear task to a really capable colleague the clearer your instruction, the better the result you'll get back.
How you phrase your prompt makes all the difference between a generic response and something genuinely useful for your work with young people.
A prompt is a clear instruction input. The better the task, context and format, the better the output!
The Simple Formula
Prompt = what you ask + how you ask it
Weak Prompt ❌
"Explain AI."
Better Prompt ✅
"Create a complete mini-course explain what artificial intelligence is to young people aged 13-15 using simple language and real-life examples."
Clearer prompts usually produce more relevant outputs, but AI may still misunderstand the request or generate incorrect information. Every output requires review.
KEY ELEMENTS OF A GOOD PROMPT
A strong prompt has five key ingredients. Get these right and you'll consistently get outputs that actually work for your sessions, resources, and young people.
Persona / Role - Who the AI should act as - Define the expertise you need: youth worker, facilitator, Erasmus+ trainer, project manager, evaluator, social media strategist.
Task - What you want it to do - State the exact result: workshop plan, activity, email, report section, checklist, reflection questions, social media post.
Context - Who it is for and why - Include target group, age, needs, barriers, project type, objectives, local reality, and uploaded documents or source material.
Format - How the answer should look - Specify structure: bullets, table, step-by-step plan, timing, materials, objectives, debriefing, evaluation, final output.
Tone - How it should sound - Define the voice: professional, youth-friendly, institutional, simple, persuasive, inclusive, direct, or formal.
Step-by-Step: Writing a Good Prompt
Follow these 6 steps every time you write a prompt. By the end, you'll have something clear, specific, and ready to get great results.
Remember: writing a good prompt is a process, define, explain, specify, structure, and improve. Don't worry if your first attempt isn't perfect. Just refine!
Ready-to-Use Prompt Examples
Copy, adapt, and make these prompts your own. They're designed for real youth work situations and will save you time straight away.
You can always ask the AI to improve your draft prompt
🎯 Workshop Design
"Create a 90-minute workshop for young people aged 15-18 on digital wellbeing. Include activities and reflection questions."
🙋 Icebreakers
"Give me 10 creative icebreakers for teenagers. Keep them simple and interactive with no materials needed."
📖 Explain a Topic
"Explain AI using simple language and real-life examples suitable for young people aged 15."
💬 Discussion Questions
"Create 10 debate questions about social media and wellbeing for a group of 16-18 year olds."
Risk & Inclusion Check
“Review this youth work activity for foreseeable safeguarding, accessibility, inclusion and data-protection risks. For each risk, suggest a practical mitigation and identify anything that requires human review or approval.”
Outcomes & Evidence
“Turn this project idea into three realistic learning or organisational outcomes. For each outcome, propose one measurable indicator, one evidence source and one follow-up question. Clearly distinguish between outputs, outcomes and longer-term impact.”
Upgrade Your Prompts
Once you've written a basic prompt, these simple add-ons can transform the quality of your output. Think of them as power-ups simple fixes that make a big difference. Better prompts do not need to be longer. They need better context, clearer limits and stronger outputs.
“Use simple language and explain any Erasmus+ terms.”
Makes content accessible for all young people, including those with lower literacy.
"Structure it step by step"
Makes the output easier to apply in sessions
Add risks and safeguards
Improves safety, GDPR awareness and youth protection
"Use the documents I uploaded as the main source and flag anything not supported by them"
Helps ground the answer in selected source material; check that the documents are reliable and up to date.
"Create a ready-to-use template"
Turns ideas into practical resources.
"Check for bias, exclusion or unsafe content"
Strengthens ethics and inclusion
"Ask me 3 questions before answering"
Prevents vague answers and forces better context.
"Give examples" or "Use examples for young people"
Grounds abstract ideas in concrete real-life situations young people can relate to.
"Make it interactive"
Turns passive content into something young people can engage with actively.
"Add reflection questions" or "Create a debriefing"
Encourages deeper thinking and supports learning beyond the session.
"Keep it short and more assertive/stronger" or "Give me the most practical version"
Perfect for attention spans especially in group settings or printed resources. Removes theory and focuses on real use.
"Adapt for mixed groups" or "Add inclusion adaptations" or "Adapt it to Erasmus+ youth work"
Ensures content works across different abilities, backgrounds, and experience levels.
Your Next Steps
You've got the knowledge, now it's time to put it into practice. Start small, experiment, and build your confidence with AI tools one prompt at a time.
Pick one AI platform
Start with ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, create a free account and explore the interface.
Write your first prompt
Use the five-ingredient formula, defining clear: goal, context, details, format, and tone.
Review the output
Check for accuracy, age-appropriateness, and safety before using it with young people.
Iterate and improve
Refine your prompt, try the add-ons, and keep experimenting until it works for you.
AI AGENTS FOR YOUTH WORK
Prompt vs. AI Agent - Which Should You Use?
Both have their place. Use a prompt for quick, one-off requests. Use an AI agent when you're doing the same or similar tasks repeatedly and want reliable, consistent results without starting from scratch each time.
How an AI Agent Works
In this toolkit, a reusable AI assistant is built from five key building blocks that guide the AI consistently every time you use it.
Persona
The role and context the AI plays - trainer, facilitator, assistant; plus work areas you target
Tasks
What the AI should actually do step-by-step, the more clearly the task is described, the more useful the result is likely to be
Target Group
Who is the content designed for? Describe only relevant, non-identifying characteristics
Style
Tone, language level, size and format that you prefer
Rules
Limits, constraints and non-negotiables to create better and more consistent results.
How to Build Your First AI Agent
Create a reusable assistant that plans, adapts, writes, and improves youth work tasks with consistent quality.
Tips for Better AI Agents
Be specific about your target group
Age, profile, needs, context, goals, background, and context shape every output
Demand structure
Steps, timings, materials, debriefing, outputs.
Give source documents
Ebooks, toolkits, reports, templates, policies.
Add clear rules
Clear, practical, inclusive, youth-friendly, safe, low cost, include timing
Use Examples
Show the exact style, format, and depth you expect
Improve after testing
Review, correct, simplify, save the best prompt.
Common Mistake
❌ Too Vague
"Help me with a session in youth work"
✅ Better
"Create an interactive 90-minute non-formal workshop for 16-20-year-olds on digital wellbeing, with objectives, timings, activities, debriefing questions, materials, and inclusion adaptations"
Without relevant sources, answers may be more generic. Reliable, up-to-date source documents can make the assistant more useful and consistent.
For Persona/Role, Tasks, Target Group, Style and Rules, create short reference documents containing only relevant, non-identifying information and approved instructions. Upload them only to tools approved by your organisation.
Other good sources include:
Youth Goals
Erasmus+ Guidelines and Priorities
Youthpass competences revised
Erasmus+ Training Toolkits and Resources
Your Goal: Build Your First Agent
Take five minutes right now to create your own reusable AI agent.
Pick a repeated task
Think of something you do regularly such as icebreakers, session plans, social media posts or e-mails
Write 3 clear instructions
Define the role, the audience, and the output format
Test it with one real request
See what it produces - then refine until it feels right
Ready-to-Use: Youth Workshop Generator
Copy this agent instruction directly into ChatGPT and start generating workshops immediately.
"You are a youth worker virtual assistant with facilitation and NFE skills. You create 60-90 minute workshops for young people aged 16-25 using non-formal education methods. - You include: objectives, step-by-step activities, materials, timing, and reflection questions - Use simple language and keep the sessions practical and easy to deliver."
AI Tools Worth Knowing
Whiteboard/Visual Mapping Automation Web & App Building
Napkin AI, Miro, Canva Whiteboards
Use for: Transforming written text into Diagrams, flowcharts, mind maps, process maps and visual explanations or summaries.
Best moment: Explaining complex ideas, mapping project workflows, visualising session plans and turning text into clear learning visuals.
Safeguard: Risk of oversimplification, inaccurate diagrams and unclear logic. Review structure, check accuracy and adapt visuals to the group's level.
Starter task: Ask participants to transform a project idea into a visual map: problem → target group → activities → tools → impact.
Make, n8n, Zapier
Use for: Connecting apps and automating repetitive admin workflows. Automatic workflows: form → sheet → email → folder → reminder.
Best moment: Applications, reminders, feedback, attendance, reporting and partner communication.
Safeguard: Risk of data leaks, broken workflows and wrong triggers. Start simple, test first, restrict permissions and avoid sensitive data.
Starter task: Build one workflow: e.g. when a participant submits a form, add them to a sheet and send a confirmation email.
Framer, Emergent, Stitch
Use for: Websites, landing pages, app prototypes, UI mockups, MVP's and simple digital tools using no-code AI.
Best moment: Project dissemination, youth campaigns, community platforms and prototype challenges.
Safeguard: Risk of poor accessibility, weak UX and inaccurate content. Test on mobile, simplify navigation, check accessibility and validate with users.
Starter task: Groups design a landing page for a youth project with objective, activities, impact and call to action.
Practical NFE activities
Practical model for creating activities involving digital tools:
- Learning objective - Define what participants should learn or practise. 1.
- Digital tool purpose - Explain why this tool is being used. The tool must serve the learning goal. 2.
- Short demonstration - Show the tool in 5-10 minutes. Do not overexplain. 3.
- Group task - Participants use the tool to create, decide, map, debate or reflect. 4.
- Peer exchange - Groups compare outputs and learn from each other. 5.
- Debriefing - Ask what they learnt, what was difficult and how the tool changed the process. 6.
- Evidence output - Save or upgrade one concrete result: board, post, form, reflection, screenshot, summary or action plan. 7.
- Transfer Ask - "How can you use this in your organization or next project?" 8.
Core rule: Do not let tool instruction dominate the learning process. Provide the demonstration, practice and support that participants need. Then let them jump into action.
Digital Activity to Youthpass Competences Learning
Digital tools should not only create outputs, they should help participants recognise, reflect and evidence their learning
European Resources
Use these European resources to deepen digital youth work, participation, safety, competence development and ethical practice.
Glossary
Accessibility
Designing content, tools and activities so that people with disabilities and other access needs can perceive, understand, use and participate without avoidable barriers.
Active Participation
Meaningful involvement in shaping, carrying out and evaluating activities or decisions, with a real opportunity to express views and influence outcomes.
AI Agent
In this toolkit, a reusable AI assistant configured with instructions, context, knowledge and rules to support repeated tasks. More advanced agents may also use connected tools or perform multi-step actions. Human oversight remains necessary.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Technology that enables computer systems to analyse inputs and generate outputs such as content, predictions, recommendations or decisions.
Youth Work
A broad range of social, cultural, educational, environmental or political activities carried out by, with and for young people, based on voluntary participation and non-formal or informal learning.
Digital Youth Work
The proactive use or exploration of digital media and technology in youth work, as a tool, activity or topic, guided by the same goals, values and ethics as youth work.
Erasmus+
The European Union programme supporting education, training, youth and sport through learning mobility, cooperation and participation opportunities.
GDPR
The European Union regulation governing the lawful, fair, transparent and secure processing of personal data and protecting individuals’ data rights.
Non-formal Education (NFE)
Purposeful and voluntary learning that takes place outside formal education and uses learner-centred, participatory methods.
Prompt
An instruction or input given to an AI system describing the task, context, constraints and desired output.
Safeguarding
Policies and actions that prevent and respond to harm, abuse, exploitation, neglect or unsafe situations, protecting young people’s rights, dignity and wellbeing online and offline.
Workflow
A structured sequence of tasks, decisions, tools and outputs used to complete a process.
Automation
The use of technology to perform predefined tasks or workflow steps automatically, with appropriate human oversight.
Youthpass
A European recognition instrument for identifying and documenting learning outcomes developed in Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps projects.
Connection Blueprint: Digital Tools for Youth Workers
Erasmus+ Training Course
Project reference: 2025-1-PT02-KA151-YOU-000300620
https://digitaltools4youthwork.eu/