GLOCAL National Youth AI Literacy Challenge 2026–27
Designed by youth. Tested in communities. Built for real life.
Take part in a national challenge that recognizes youth ideas, community service and excellence in AI literacy. Submit your project anytime during the Challenge cycle to have your service hours recorded and your work considered for showcase and promotion.
Both “Take the Challenge” and “Submit Your Project Anytime” open your YouCount Challenge Cart at volunteer.youcount.ca. Add the Challenge to your cart to get started, then return there to submit your work and record your service hours.
How can we make AI literacy more useful, creative, inclusive and accessible for different people and communities?
The GLOCAL National Youth AI Literacy Challenge 2026–27 is a national community-service initiative inviting young Canadians to strengthen AI literacy through learning by doing.
Research an issue. Collect community perspectives. Analyze data. Create public information. Run a workshop. Explore AI ethics and safety. Build a digital tool. Test an idea.
Bring your own approach to AI literacy and demonstrate what your project contributes to your community.
Research it. Design it. Do it. Test it. Improve it. Share what works.
AI is changing how people learn, work and find information. Understanding its limits matters as much as knowing how to use it.
Practical AI literacy helps communities recognize misinformation, question bias, protect their privacy and make informed choices.
GLOCAL's Challenge is a community-service initiative that invites young Canadians to contribute practical ideas, projects and community experience to this broader national conversation.
AI literacy means helping people understand, use, question, and navigate AI in ways that matter in their real lives.
And your project can be for anyone.
And you do not need to build new AI technology.
Who do you want to help become more confident and informed about AI — and what would actually work for them?
That question then naturally leads into Track 1: Ideas & Insights and Track 2: Community Projects.
Start and submit your Challenge project through your YouCount Challenge Cart.
Select “Take the Challenge” to open volunteer.youcount.ca and add the National Youth AI Literacy Challenge to your Challenge Cart. This is where you manage your participation and return to submit your completed project.
If you do not already have a YouCount account, you can create one as part of the process.
Work individually or with a team.
Choose a project that matches your:
Your Challenge project itself is your community service.
Research, planning, consultation, design, outreach, building, testing, delivery, evaluation and knowledge mobilization can all form part of your service hours.
When your project is ready, return to your YouCount Challenge Cart to submit it. Share your work and actual service hours for review, service-hour recording and potential showcase and promotion.
Tell us:
Submit your completed project by:
January 8, 2027
Projects received by this date can enter the national judging and recognition process for the Challenge's 11 National Awards.
You can continue working on your project and submit it later.
The 2026–27 Challenge cycle remains open through:
March 31, 2027
Later projects can still receive community-service recognition and may be showcased or included in GLOCAL knowledge-mobilization activities, but will not enter the 2026–27 National Award judging cycle.
Explore an AI literacy question, problem or opportunity.
You could:
This track is particularly suitable if you want to investigate and contribute knowledge without running a large community program.
Take an idea into the real world.
You might:
A simple project that genuinely helps people can be more valuable than a sophisticated technical product nobody needs.
Projects can use one or several pathways.
Explore questions such as:
What do young people actually need to understand about AI?
How is AI changing education or employment?
What AI literacy gaps exist?
What can Canada learn from other jurisdictions?
How effective are existing AI literacy resources?
Possible outputs:
Research reports, policy briefs, resource reviews, recommendations, comparative studies.
Collect or analyze information.
Projects might:
Possible outputs:
Datasets, Google Sheets, charts, dashboards, maps, data reports.
Work directly with people.
Projects might:
Possible outputs:
Workshops, events, consultations, mentoring activities, community programs.
Help make complicated information easier to understand and use.
Projects might create:
Build or prototype:
Advanced coding is not required.
A thoughtful prototype with good user testing can be an excellent project.
This is a major part of AI literacy.
Knowing how to use AI is only part of the challenge.
People also need to understand:
When should we question AI?
When should we verify it?
When should we not use it?
Who could be harmed?
Where should human judgment remain essential?
Projects may explore:
The Challenge is designed especially for youth, but participation itself is intended to be inclusive.
For the Challenge’s financial project subsidy and National Awards, eligible youth are:
Projects may be individual or group projects.
A youth-led team may include people outside the financial eligibility criteria—including older community members, mentors or other collaborators.
Canadians outside the 12–30 age range are also welcome to:
However:
Project subsidies and financial National Awards are reserved for eligible youth.
We especially encourage intergenerational teams to partner with young Canadians.
Your actual work on the Challenge can count toward your GLOCAL community-service record.
Examples include time spent on:
Report your actual time contributed.
The goal is not to maximize the number of hours reported. It is to document meaningful service accurately.
Submit anytime during the Challenge cycle through the same YouCount Challenge Cart you used to take the Challenge. Report your actual service hours and share your completed work for review, service-hour recording and potential showcase and promotion.
Your project submission documents your contribution and enables GLOCAL to review your work for community-service recognition, potential showcase and promotion, and eligible National Awards.
When you’re ready, tell us:
What AI literacy question, need or problem did you address?
Who did you design the project for?
What did you research, create, organize or deliver?
If applicable:
What worked?
What didn’t?
What surprised you?
What would you improve?
Include relevant sources, datasets or references.
Report your actual hours.
Help reviewers understand the circumstances in which your work was completed.
For example:
You do not need to disclose sensitive personal information.
Context helps reviewers understand impact relative to circumstances, rather than judging projects only by size, money or number of people reached.
This can be especially relevant to awards such as Most Inclusive & Accessible, Rural, Remote & Northern Community, and Perseverance & Commitment.
Open Your Challenge Cart to access your project and submit your work.
Funding is optional.
You do not need funding to participate.
You do not need funding to submit your project.
You do not need funding to qualify for National Awards.
But if reasonable project costs would prevent or significantly limit you from carrying out your idea, eligible youth can separately apply for:
The project grant has a separate funding application and review process.
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.
Completed projects submitted by January 8, 2027 may be considered for National Awards if the lead/recipient meets the youth award eligibility requirements.
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.
Different projects should not all look the same.
A research report, a northern community workshop and a digital learning game require different kinds of excellence.
Reviewers may consider:
Context matters.
A project reaching 25 people in a small remote community can be as meaningful as one reaching hundreds of people in a large city.
We are interested in:
What did you accomplish with the people, resources and circumstances available to you?
Detailed category-specific judging criteria will be published before national judging.
The Challenge is not intended to end when a project is submitted.
Selected projects may be shared through:
Knowledge-mobilization activities involving educators, organizations and decision-makers
Participants will be able to indicate appropriate permissions for public use of their work, images and video.
Anytime during the 2026–27 Challenge cycle.
Whenever your project is ready.
January 8, 2027
Projects submitted by this date can enter national judging.
March 31, 2027
Projects completed after January 8 can still be submitted for service recognition and potential showcase/knowledge mobilization.
Reviewed separately on a rolling basis, subject to available funding.
Select “Take the Challenge” to open YouCount and add the Challenge 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.