In the new 2023 with a new activity – another significant regional activity ahead of us

There is another good news for the end of 2022 – at its last annual meeting, the Programming Committee on Youth included the “Voice of Youth is the Voice of the Future” project on the list of international activities approved by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.

The project, which is expected to begin in the first half of 2023, is conceived as a six-month activity aimed at strengthening the capacity and knowledge of a specific group of young people – young trade union activists in the field of democratic participation, with the main goal of including this significant group of young people in the revitalization of pluralistic democracy and enabling equal access to young people’s rights. Partners in the project intend to show that young trade union activists, with developed specific knowledge and skills, can be a significant actor in the field of youth policy, not only at the level of their organization and/or local community, but also at the wider national, regional and European level.

Aim of the planned activities is to empower young people in trade unions to become more involved in decision-making processes and to be more active in the revitalization of pluralistic democracy, using the very structures to which they belong – trade unions. Through the activities, knowledge, skills and initiatives of young trade unionists will be strengthened to initiate and implement changes in the institutional and political life of community, all with the aim of improving democracy and strengthening civil society in all countries involved. Their action will not only refer to labor rights as the focus of the trade union, but also to all other social rights of importance for young people, showing that this category of young people can influence change of the institutional framework and represent an important actor when it comes to lobbying for the needs and priorities of young people, becoming a true voice of youth.

The project of exceptional synergistic power will enable the networking of 35 participants from 7 involved countries (Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Greece and Bulgaria) through an initial four-day training, which will be followed by local actions in the participating countries aimed at further usage of specific tools and methods of communication with young people and decision makers learned during the training; joint campaign “Voice of youth is the voice of the future” and an online consultative meeting aimed at preparing the outcomes of the project – above all, an idea for further joint action at the regional level.

Coordinator of the project that insists on a multi-sector approach, and one of whose partners is Development Center for Youth is the Association for Education and Development from Montenegro, while the other partners are the Trade Union of Administration and Justice from Montenegro, Trade Union of Communal Workers from Serbia, Trade Union UPOZ from Macedonia, Trade Union of Administration from Republika Srpska, Trade Union YOUTH PLUS from Slovenia, as well as the Institute for Youth Development KULT from Bosnia and Herzegovina.