SMILE Incubator - Social Media Leadership Incubator for Danube Region

The Danube Region's (DR) remote rural communities are facing significant challenges due to emigration rates, brain drain, an ageing population, and the increasing importance of digitalization. The SMILE Incubator project aims to empower youth living in rural areas by providing them with essential skills, competences, and tools. The project aims to reverse current trends by equipping young people with the necessary resources to succeed in their rural environment, promoting sustainable development and resilience in these communities.

The main objective of the project is to develop a transnational Social Media Leadership Incubator for rural youth, which will serve as a mechanism to strengthen leadership skills and empowerment, contributing to the development of sustainable democracies in the DR. The main target group is youth from underdeveloped rural communities, but activities will also aim at academics, SMEs, NGOs, and media outlets. Building leadership capacity and social media skills will encourage youth participation in active citizenship and ultimately the future leadership of rural communities in the DR.

The project will be managed and implemented by a diverse but balanced consortium of 20 partners (LP, 15 PPs, and 4 ASPs) from all 14 countries of the DR, with complementary competences, experience, and expertise. This will create synergies that will lead to high relevance and quality of results.

SO1 focuses on assessing the state of youth participation and leadership in the DR, developing policy guidelines to strengthen social media and rural youth leadership through workshops, producing a comprehensive position paper on social media, leadership, and rural youth participation in the DR, and providing a roadmap for policy makers and stakeholders.

SO2 aims to build a cooperation network between different actors in the field of youth leadership, involving relevant stakeholders and developing a comprehensive strategy document. An operational toolkit will equip facilitators and participants with practical resources for the effective delivery of training programs.

Under SO3, the project will focus on developing social media leadership capacity-building tools for rural youth.