GLOCAL National Youth AI Literacy Challenge · 2026–27
Help your community understand, question and use AI with confidence.
GLOCAL’s AI Literacy Challenge invites people across Canada to research, create and test projects that help communities understand and use AI responsibly. Turn your learning into community service, individually or with a team.
Join and submit your project on YouCount, GLOCAL’s community-service platform.
Awards and project support: ages 12–30, Canadian citizens, permanent residents or refugees. Other age groups can participate. Explore project support →
Learn by doing. Share what works.
AI literacy connects understanding with judgment and action: how AI works, where it falls short, whose needs it serves and how people can shape its use.
Start with a community priority, a research question or a possibility worth exploring. Help a community, design a digital project, curate useful resources or build evidence that informs decisions. Technical and non-technical contributions are welcome.
These are starting points, not prescribed formats or limits on ambition. A project can connect research, community partnership, creative communication and digital design.
Investigate how AI affects a community, institution or public service. Translate findings into practical recommendations.
Study how a community organization uses AI, compare policy approaches, or co-develop guidance for transparent and accountable adoption. Share a research brief, consultation findings or a policy proposal.
Build evidence that helps communities understand AI, identify gaps and make informed decisions.
Map access to AI learning resources, investigate how tools perform across languages, or analyze community perspectives with consent. Publish a documented dataset, accessible dashboard or evidence report that explains its limitations.
Work with a community to identify priorities and co-design an AI literacy initiative that responds to them.
Partner with a library, school or community organization to develop a peer-learning network, public dialogue or workshop series. Test materials with participants and use their feedback to improve the approach.
Curate, interpret and share reliable knowledge so people can put it to use in their own contexts.
Create an annotated resource collection, multilingual learning hub, documentary series or interactive public guide. Explain how sources were selected, adapt the material for its audience and test whether people find it useful.
Design a digital project that strengthens civic participation, community learning or access to trustworthy AI information.
Prototype an interactive learning environment, source-checking tool, accessible resource navigator or civic-data experience. Document design choices, test with intended users and improve the project through feedback.
Examine the social consequences of AI and design practical ways to support responsible use.
Evaluate bias or accessibility in an AI-enabled service, design a privacy-aware workflow for a community organization, or develop a framework for human oversight. Explain the risks, trade-offs, evidence and limits of your recommendations.
Imagine the connections. A community-led AI resource hub could combine consultation, research, resource curation, accessible digital design and evaluation. Choose a scope you can carry through, and show how your work benefits others and what you learned.
From a question to a contribution
Your Challenge continues on YouCount. The button opens this specific Challenge on volunteer.youcount.ca, GLOCAL’s volunteering and community-service platform, in a new tab.
Create an account or sign in, select Take the Challenge and add it to your Challenge Cart. Return there to submit your work and record your service hours for review.
You’re in the right place. This Challenge is a community-service opportunity: you contribute your knowledge, creativity and time to help others. YouCount hosts GLOCAL’s volunteer tasks and community projects, including this Challenge.
A guide to AI scams, research into community needs or an AI literacy workshop can all contribute. Learning supports your project; the community contribution and eligible service hours are reviewed by GLOCAL.
Open the AI Literacy Challenge page on YouCount, GLOCAL’s community-service platform. Sign in or create an account, select “Take the Challenge” and add it to your Challenge Cart.
Start with a community need. Work on your own or with a team, using the skills you want to share.
Research, build or deliver your project. Test what works and keep a record of your actual service hours.
Return to your Challenge Cart to share your project and hours for review and recognition.
Use your YouCount Challenge Cart to join the Challenge and return to submit your completed project. See submission dates →
Track 1 · 5–40 service hours
Explore a question and share what you discover through research, interviews, analysis, recommendations or a prototype.
Track 2 · 20–200 service hours
Put an idea into practice. Run a workshop, create a resource or build a tool, then test it with the people it is meant to help.
A place for your contribution
Individual and group projects are welcome. Canadians beyond the youth age range can also participate, collaborate and submit work for potential showcase.
Financial awards and project support: recipients must be ages 12–30 and Canadian citizens, permanent residents or refugees.
Research, consultation, design, creation, delivery, testing and sharing your project can contribute to your GLOCAL community-service record.
Record your actual time and submit it with your work for review. The goal is meaningful service, documented accurately.
Include time spent on source review, interviews, surveys, planning, data work, writing, coding, translation, outreach, workshops, mentoring, user testing, collecting feedback, improving the project and preparing your submission.
For school-related projects, identify the additional community-service contribution rather than simply reporting mandatory classroom time.
Celebrate what you make possible
Submit a completed project by January 8, 2027 for award consideration. Financial awards are reserved for eligible youth.
For the strongest overall combination of usefulness, execution, learning, community benefit and potential for others to build upon.
For an especially original, engaging or inventive approach.
For particularly meaningful community benefit and evidence of real-world impact.
Impact is not measured only by the number of people reached.
For outstanding work reducing barriers to AI literacy.
For an outstanding project designed with, for or in a rural, remote or northern Canadian community.
For exceptional determination and commitment in completing a project while navigating meaningful challenges.
For outstanding use of research, data, consultation or evidence.
For an especially effective approach to helping people learn about, understand or use AI.
For an outstanding digital or technology-enabled AI literacy solution.
For outstanding work involving ethics, privacy, bias, misinformation, safety, accountability or responsible AI use.
Selected through public voting among eligible finalist projects.
Reviewers consider usefulness, execution, creativity, evidence, community relevance, inclusion, responsible AI, testing and learning. Context matters: a project helping a small remote community can be as meaningful as one reaching hundreds of people.
What did you accomplish with the people, resources and circumstances available to you? Detailed category-specific judging criteria will be published before national judging.
Selected projects may appear in GLOCAL galleries, national showcases, community resources and youth stories. Participants can indicate permissions for public use of their work, images and video.
Explore the GLOCAL community showcase →Share your contribution
Submit through your YouCount Challenge Cart for review, service-hour recording and potential showcase. Include your completed work or a link, relevant sources, and your actual hours.
The idea What did you do, and who was it for?
The result What did you create? What happened?
The learning What worked, and what would you improve?
Join and develop your project at your own pace.
Submit completed work for National Award consideration.
Later submissions remain eligible for service review and potential showcase, but not this cycle’s awards.
Learn, question, create
AI literacy combines understanding how AI works, checking its outputs and making informed choices about its use. Use these starting points to develop your own knowledge, plan a community project or support a learning session.
Actua’s AI-Ready Generation includes activities for grades 2–7 and 8–12 on AI, machine learning, generative AI, data bias and deepfakes.
Explore Actua’s AI learning resources ↗MediaSmarts’ Learning with AI lesson for grades 4–6 explores checking AI-generated answers, understanding limitations and using AI responsibly in learning.
Explore the MediaSmarts lesson ↗Check who created it, the evidence behind its claims, its intended age group and when it was updated. Consider language, accessibility, cost and whether an account is required. Test it with your intended audience, explain its limitations and credit the original creators.
A resource collection becomes a community contribution when you explain your selection, adapt the learning approach to a real need and assess whether people can use it. Explore the six project pathways.
External learning resources, reviewed September 29, 2026. These organizations are independent of GLOCAL’s Challenge; their inclusion does not imply a partnership.
Optional project support
Eligible youth can apply separately for up to $500 in need-based support for reasonable project costs, such as materials, translation or accessibility support.
Funding is not required to participate, submit or qualify for an award. Requests are reviewed separately on a rolling basis, subject to available funds.
Apply for project support ↗The subsidy application is intentionally based on GLOCAL's existing microgrant process.
You will tell us:
Need-based means:
Funding decisions consider whether the requested expenses are necessary and reasonable for completing the project, as well as available program resources.
You do not need to request the full $500.
For example:
A strong project that costs $0 is just as eligible for national recognition as a funded project.
Complete the funding form on submit.youcount.ca.
We review:
If approved, GLOCAL sends an offer specifying the approved subsidy.
Accept the offer, confirm your project and budget, complete the required agreement and provide payment information.
After the required documents are approved, the subsidy moves to payment.
Carry out the project and submit your completed work.
Funded projects must provide the required expense records and comply with the project subsidy agreement.
Receiving project subsidy is NOT required to participate in the Challenge or compete for an award.
Likewise, an unsuccessful funding application does not mean the project itself has been rejected.
You can still complete and submit it.
Select “Take the Challenge” to open this specific opportunity on volunteer.youcount.ca, GLOCAL’s volunteering and community-service platform, and add it to your Challenge Cart. Create an account if needed, develop your project, and return to the same cart to submit your completed work and actual community-service hours.
Your project submission is how you share your completed work for review and recognition. If you need financial support, apply separately for a need-based project grant of up to $500. Grants are available to eligible youth ages 12–30 who are Canadian citizens, permanent residents or refugees.
Yes. Submit when your project is ready, through March 31, 2027, to have your actual community-service hours recorded and your work considered for showcase and promotion. Submit by January 8, 2027 if you also want consideration for the 11 National Awards.
No.
Funding and awards are completely separate.
Absolutely.
Project quality, learning, usefulness and impact matter—not how much money you spend.
Only if you want your project considered for the 2026–27 National Awards.
Otherwise you may continue and submit through March 31.
The Challenge welcomes participation beyond that age range.
However, the need-based project subsidy and financial National Awards are reserved for eligible youth ages 12–30 who meet the citizenship/status requirements.
Yes—and GLOCAL encourages it.
Projects can involve mentors, educators, parents, professionals, seniors and other community members.
Yes.
Both individual and group projects are welcome.
No.
AI literacy is much broader than coding.
Research, workshops, policy analysis, data, communications, community outreach, educational design and responsible-AI projects are all welcome.
No.
A project can strengthen people’s understanding of AI without using AI as the production tool.
For example, a workshop on deepfakes, privacy or AI hiring could be an excellent AI literacy project.
Yes, where appropriate—but use it responsibly.
Participants should verify important information, respect privacy and copyright, disclose AI use where relevant, and maintain human responsibility for the final work.
Potentially, yes.
You should clearly identify the additional community-service contribution and ensure that any hours reported to GLOCAL represent genuine eligible service work rather than simply mandatory classroom time.
This can be permitted subject to the final Challenge rules. For award purposes, each project should stand on its own merits.
Contact GLOCAL as early as possible.
Funded projects are subject to their project agreement and may need to return unused or ineligible funds.
Start with someone you want to help.
You don’t need a perfect idea. Bring your curiosity, your skills and a willingness to learn.
Need project support?