As media increasingly mediate everything in society, there is a growing emphasis on ensuring that people, and particularly young men and women have media literacy not only to engage with media, but furthermost, to engage with society through media.Young people are “digital natives”, yet they often lack basic awareness and skills that would enable them to be responsible “digital citizens”. Poor socio-economic situation and a lack of perspectives for youth, intertwined with a lack of exposure to cultural diversity create a fruitful environment for the spread of populist messages fueling intolerance. On the other hand, particularly in the Balkans, spreading of fake news gained an economic dimension. In the region, where the overwhelming majority of youth are unemployed yet skilled, many joined the “fake news industry” in pursue of easy money.In line with the goals of the Erasmus+ KA 2 Capacity-Building in the Field of Youth program, “Youth Media Literacy Lab” project will focus on increasing the capacity of young people to critically assess, analyze and interpret media, thus strengthening their resilience to identify and withstand fake news, populist agenda and hate speech. The project will be organized over the period of 7 September 2020 – 7 September 2021, and will target youth workers and young people in the age of 15-29, from Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Lithuania, Italy and Croatia.Through a broad range of interconncted activities, including a desk research, a Training of Trainers, local workshops, a youth exchange, an awareness campaign, preparation of a youth-friendly toolkit, youth-led follow-up activities, a closing conference and a launch of an Alumni Network of Peer Multipliers, the project aims to achieve the following:Strengthen media literacy skills of young people and equip them with specific knowledge and tools how to identify, deconstruct and prevent fake news, populistic messaging and hate speech,Prepare a new cohort of peer educators on media literacy and critical thinking, which will be further supported by the Partnership,Consolidate existing good practices and media literacy tools across the Partnership into a project toolkit, which will be available online to a broader audience,Empower young people to act as agents of positive change in their communities,Strengthen and enhance the network of CSOs working on digital media literacy.In the long-term, the project will foster youth active participation in democratic life by promoting the values of “digital citizenship” and human rights-oriented online behaviour. Furthermore, the project supports young people in becoming agents of positive change and lasting peace through a focus on youth-led peer-to-peer activities and intercultural dialogue. These outcomes will be particularly important for participants from the Balkans, where post-conflict narratives still dominate public discourse, and positive narratives of youth inter-ethnic cooperation remain rare.