Resilient Community – Empowering Youth and Citizens to Recognize Disinformation
The project empowers young people and citizens to more easily recognise disinformation about the environment and climate change and to approach online information more responsibly. Through education, facilitated discussions and digital content, it encourages critical thinking and more constructive public dialogue. In doing so, it contributes to democratic resilience, information security and active citizenship.
Community Resilience to Disinformation
Across Europe, including Croatia, democratic processes are increasingly exposed to waves of disinformation, including content related to the environment and climate change. Such content is spreading more frequently through AI-generated visuals, manipulative graphs, and emotionally charged messages about climate policies, renewable energy, and environmental risks.
Schools, communities, and civil society organizations emphasize the need for education that will empower young people and the wider public to recognize false claims and understand manipulation mechanisms. The value of facilitated discussions and debates on climate and environmental topics is particularly highlighted.
Project Goal
The project aims to strengthen societal resilience through education, discussions/debates, and information-sharing about information threats in the fields of climate and the environment, while providing practical tools for verifying information and more responsible online behaviour.
Specifically, the project will:
- empower students to recognize climate- and environment-related disinformation and to verify sources and context in digital environments
- develop practical information verification (fact-checking) skills and evidence-based argumentation
- encourage constructive discussion through guided debates/simulations on climate topics with built-in information verification
- provide citizens with accessible digital content (webinar, podcast, campaign) that supports understanding, verification, and responsible use of information on climate and the environment
Activities
1) Empowering youth to recognize disinformation
- Workshops “I Only Believe It Once I Verify It” focused on source-checking, identifying manipulation, greenwashing, and responsible content sharing
- School debates / climate negotiation simulations with secondary school students (debate clubs and interested students), practising evidence-based argumentation and real-time verification
2) Empowering citizens for information resilience
- A webinar on climate and environmental disinformation challenges, featuring expert presentations and a panel discussion, with the recording available online
- A digital educational campaign “Recognise, Verify, Decide” on ODRAZ communication channels
- The podcast series “Disinfo Decoded” in cooperation with Radio Student: three episodes featuring guests from media, education and civil society, focused on information resilience and offering practical tips for fact-checking and responsible online behaviour
Target Groups
- primary and secondary school students
- the general public
- teachers, professional associates, and debate club mentors
- civil society organizations, journalists, fact-checkers, and other relevant stakeholders who can amplify the project’s impact
Expected Results
- implementation of four workshops for at least 60 students, and development of an educational material (presentation) for further use in schools
- implementation of two debates (climate negotiation simulations) for at least 16 secondary school students, strengthening argumentation and verification skills
- delivery of one webinar with at least 30 participants, with a publicly available recording
- implementation of three online campaigns
- production of three podcast episodes with Radio Student
Project lead: ODRAZ – Sustainable Community Development
Implementation period: 16 April – 16 November 2026
Cooperation: Radio Student
Total funding amount: 13.900,10 EUR
Contact person for more information: Ksenija Vorberger. ksenija@odraz.hr
#otpornazajednica #dezinformacije
This project receives funding by European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) in the framework of the EURECA Plus 2026 project, which is co-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 ECAS. Neither the European Union nor ECAS can be held responsible for them.
