Jugendverstärker

How can politicians be made aware of young people’s concerns? What about a software that could flag up hidden issues? Where does AI make sense, and where are the dangers? The Jugendverstärker project focuses on these questions – and has now developed a prototype. Many participation schemes overlook what’s on young people’s minds. It seems politicians are unaware of what young people want. Many young voices remain unheard – so Jugendverstärker wants to identify and amplify them.

Jugendverstärker (“Youth Amplifier”) is run by IJAB in cooperation with the Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland e.V. (OKF) and beWirken - Jugendbildung auf Augenhöhe gUG. In line with the Youth Strategy of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, the project focuses on young people’s digital participation. Specifically, it aims to give visibility to issues that remain out of sight in traditional participation formats – and in doing so uses data and machine-learning algorithms. The insights, it is hoped, will help encourage more active participation in political processes among young people who so far have not felt involved. The project receives funding from the Youth Ministry’s Zukunftsfonds.