Procedure

This task consists of four parts.

In the first part, participants develop a concrete strategic plan for digital youth work in their organization. To do this, characteristics of strategic planning are first collected in a plenary session – points such as analysis, goals, measures, resources, and evaluation should be identified here.

In the second part, participants individually create a classic SWOT analysis of the digital youth work offerings in their organization. They should ask a chatbot such as Chat GPT how a SWOT analysis works and at the same time ask for ideas for their specific case. The results should of course be supplemented with their own ideas. Based on this analysis, they define three goals for their organization’s digital youth work. The goals are presented and reflected upon in a plenary session.

In the third part, participants with similar goals form small groups. In these groups, they develop up to three concrete measures to achieve the goals. They then describe the measures in more detail and answer the following questions:

• How will young people benefit from this measure?
• How will my organization benefit from this measure?
• What technical and financial resources do we need for this?
• What expertise do we need for this?
• Who do we need to involve internally in the planning/implementation?
• Who do we need to involve externally in the planning/implementation?
• What obstacles do we need to overcome?
• Where do we start?

In the fourth part, participants give a quick summary of their impressions of the exercise and are invited to describe their next/first step after the training.

Preparation

• It is useful to familiarize yourself with the concept of SWOT analysis in advance so that you can help participants with any questions or problems they may have.

Tips for moderation

• There are a variety of forms, tools, and guides for strategic planning–all of these tools can be useful and can be selected as desired. Essentially, the aim is for participants to take the time at this point to think analytically and strategically about their future digital youth work and begin to write down a plan.
• The use of a chatbot is intended to introduce participants to working with AI tools and serve as a digital supplement to the task. Of course, participants should not simply accept the results of the work process with the chatbot without reflection, but should at least think about why they are (not) helpful. The results should at least provide food for thought and be reflected upon in the plenary session afterwards.

Interesting sources

• How to create a SWOT analysis
• SWOT analysis with example – structure and procedure explained simply