Dynamically about the youth activism: why the results are not following undertaken actions?

In Belgrade from June 6 to 10, the initial training was held in the framework of the project “Active Youth-Step Ahead to Joint Changes”, which brought together 30 youth activists, as well as civil servants dealing with youth from Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Kosovo*, Macedonia, Slovakia, Croatia and Montenegro.

During interactive workshops, the participants shared their own experiences and attitudes about why youth activism (especially local) is at a low level and what can be done to make young people become more active part of the community, participating in the public and political life of it.

Participants discussed what the youth activism is and how to bring closer the concept and importance of the same to those concerned – young people; do we use proper communication channels with young people; do young people know what their rights in the community are and how to use and protect them; as well as on the extent to which the focus should be put on education, comparing to the extent to be put on the required legal measures, all these on concrete examples from their own communities. Program component of the training was additionally strengthened with the presentation and dynamic discussion with representatives of the National Youth Council of Serbia, Mrs. Olga Dević and the Youth Council of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mrs. Mirela Geko.

Participants will continue with activities in the local communities they are coming from, testing different models of work with young people that were analyzed during the training, before the final consultative meeting in November 2018, when all the findings and ideas will be collected in a common set of recommendations for different actors from the local community, but also from the national and regional level.

The aim of the project is to provide space for participants to exchange knowledge and experiences, and to use all good practice examples from different surroundings, positive experiences and different mechanisms of work to create the constructive proposals for further work on enhancing youth activism.

The project is implemented by Development Center for Youth in cooperation with partners YouthWatch from Slovakia, the Institute for Youth Development KULT from Bosnia and Herzegovina, COSMO from Montenegro and Intermedia from Serbia, with the support of the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.