About us

We live in an information environment that is increasingly difficult to navigate. False narratives spread faster than corrections. Manipulated content reaches millions before anyone has had the chance to verify it. And young people, the generation that grew up online, are both the most exposed to disinformation and the most capable of challenging it.

EU FACTOR is built on that belief. The project trains young people aged 15 to 29 across Albania, France, and Italy to become active investigators and communicators, equipped with the tools, the skills, and the confidence to identify false and manipulated information, and to respond with verified, evidence-based content of their own.

EU FACTOR works on three interconnected levels.

The first is the youth newsroom. In each of the three partner countries, a group of young people is recruited and trained as youth reporters. They learn ethical journalism, fact-checking methodology, digital safety, and multimedia storytelling. Together they produce fact-checked articles, podcasts, videos, and social media content, investigating disinformation narratives specific to their own communities and contexts. In Albania, this means examining myths around EU accession and migration. In France, false narratives about urban communities and social exclusion. In Italy, disinformation around migration and civic rights. The three newsrooms are connected through a shared editorial framework, producing content that speaks both locally and across borders.

The second is community action. Through a series of local bootcamps, young people learn to map disinformation in their communities, design civic responses, and launch grassroots initiatives, campaigns, debates, community events, that challenge false narratives at the local level. These are not classroom exercises. They are real actions, in real communities, with real audiences.

The third is cross-border exchange. Youth participants from Albania, France, and Italy meet each other, physically and digitally, to share experiences, compare contexts, and develop shared policy proposals on media literacy, digital rights, and youth participation in democratic decision-making. These exchanges build the kind of solidarity and mutual understanding that disinformation is specifically designed to undermine.

EU FACTOR is a consortium of three civil society organisations with deep roots in their communities. Dedalus Cooperativa Sociale (Naples, Italy) brings four decades of experience in social innovation, youth work, and community education. Ligue de l’Enseignement – Fédération des Bouches-du-Rhône (Marseille, France) is one of France’s oldest and largest civic education networks, working daily with young people from diverse backgrounds. Hand to Hand Against Nation Apathy – H.A.N.A (Lezhë, Albania) is a grassroots youth and civic space in northern Albania, working at the intersection of media literacy, democratic engagement, and youth empowerment in a country on its path toward European integration.

EU FACTOR runs from March 2026 to March 2028. It directly engages over 1,000 young people across the three countries, with a strong focus on young people from marginalized communities, including migrants, Roma youth, young women in patriarchal contexts, young people not in education or employment, and youth with disabilities.

The project is funded by the European Union under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) Programme, call CERV-2025-CITIZENS-CIV, Project Number 101253985.

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.