Center for Intercultural Dialogue, Scout Association of Macedonia and Center for Research and Analysis NOVUS on behalf of the project “Youth – agents of change” funded by the European Union had selected 8 youth projects with a focus on volunteering and activism among young people in the Republic of North Macedonia for financial support.
The following youth initiatives were selected for financial support:
- When young people speak implemented by the Association for Development and activism “Akva” – Struga
The overall goal of the project is to raise the voice of young people, to promote youth participation and to give them a platform to express their opinion through creative activities. Specific objectives:
• Increasing awareness among young people about the need for youth participation;
• Training of 20 young people in public speaking as a tool for youth participation;
• Conducting a competition for public speaking on youth issues;
• Local dissemination of knowledge in 2 cities to 40 young people;
• Implementation of 4 actions in the community for mapping and addressing youth problems;
- Coolinary in action – Social Entrepreneurship 4 imPact implemented by ARNO
The overall goal of the project is to advance the skills of the participants through the concept of social entrepreneurship and to improve the image and quality of vocational education in gastronomy. Specific objectives:
• Strengthening social entrepreneurship, life and soft skills of pastry chefs and students through direct involvement in culinary operations, training, workshops and guest lectures;
• Increasing the quality of VET programs for vocational education and training by introducing methods and contents for social entrepreneurship and non-formal education;
• Increasing the motivation of pastry chefs and student chefs to pursue their careers in the culinary sector through mentoring and career counseling, thereby impacting underemployment;
• Promoting culinary education for vocational education and training and solving the problems and challenges faced by vocational education and training schools through the Coolinary program;
• Promotion of culinary education for vocational education and training among young people and assistance to “Lazar Tanev” in attracting a larger number of students;
• Enhance the culinary skills of pastry chefs and pastry chef students through a skills-building program delivered by professional chefs and mentors;
• Raising awareness of the concept of social entrepreneurship among young people, the media and the general public through innovative approaches and creative formats for community building;
• Raising awareness of the impact of social entrepreneurship through storytelling and promoting success stories from North Macedonia and the Western Balkans region;
- Read between the lines: Resist misinformation and be media literate in the age of digital news! By Association “Media Flash” -Strumica
The general goal of the project is to improve media literacy and create critical thinking and analysis skills among young people in the municipality of Strumica with the ultimate goal of dealing with misinformation and fake news. This project encourages young people to become responsible consumers of information, aware of making informed decisions and engaging in constructive dialogue with all relevant stakeholders. It is precisely through all this that the project aims and contributes to the creation of an informed and cohesive community. Specific objectives:
- Development of a comprehensive training program for media literacy and creation of a structured and participatory approach to include formal and informal methods to encourage media literacy and critical thinking among young people, high school students and students;
- Initiating collaboration between key decision makers and facilitating the process between traditional and new media, civil society organizations, educational institutions, young people and local authorities for joint advocacy and fight against hate speech;
- Promoting responsible consumption of information: Increasing awareness among young people regarding the importance of the meaning of reliable information verification, fact and source verification and a critical approach to information created by the media;
- Encouraging constructive dialogue and encouraging open discussions and debates on important social issues, helping young people to develop effective communication skills and learn to engage and participate in constructive and meaningful discussions;
- School Forum for Joint Solutions, implemented by Youth Can
The general goal of the project is to strengthen the capacities of schools such as an environment in which young people, employees who work in management will nurture joint approach in mapping problems and challenges, finding alternatives and creating conceptual and functional solutions. Specific objectives:
• To create a “School Forum for Joint Solutions” methodology;
• Encourage proactivity among students to discover problems and challenges, channeled reaction to them and offering appropriate solutions;
• Change the awareness of teaching staff and school management in order to encourage a participatory approach in overcoming common problems and challenges faced by different actors in the school;
- Volunteering – a tool for Youth Activism, implemented by First Scout Unit of Skopje
- We dance, cook, volunteer! Implemented by ECD Cooperation – Bitola
The general goal of the project is to raise the awareness of young people from secondary schools in Bitola of Macedonian, Albanian and Turkish ethnicity about the fascination and beauty of cultural diversity, bringing them closer together, understanding, tolerance and encouraging intercultural dialogue through informal activities and volunteering. as well as motivating them to engage in more volunteer engagements. Specific objectives:
• Gaining volunteer experience, understanding the benefits of volunteering;
• Understanding volunteering as a way of intercultural dialogue;
• Raising youth awareness of intercultural dialogue which results in breaking stereotypes, discrimination, promoting tolerance, peace and valuing differences;
• Understanding the importance of creating cultural cohesion;
• Developing life and organizational skills;
• Raising youth awareness in that young people are the bearers of change in society and the local community and encouraging them to get involved in civic and volunteer activities and creating a stronger local community;
- Empowering Possibilities – implemented by Center for Youth Activism CYA KRIK – Skopje
Overall objective of the project is to build the capacities of young people with оr without intellectual disabilities in the field of creating crafts and supporting them in their financial independence. Specific objectives:
– To build the skills of young people with or without disabilities in order to be more interested and skilled to enter the labor market
– To increase the capacities of the young people with or without disabilities for self-employment
– To improve the social inclusion of young people with or without disabilities
– To network the social entrepreneurship sector and provide opportunity to the social enterprises to promote their work. - HackATon of Ideas – Civic Accossiation GRIT Probishtip
Overall objective of the project is to increase youth participation in creating sustainable outdoors solutions that support the environmental protection and in decision-making processes in the local community by fostering collaboration between the youth and the local government/businesses.
Specific objectives:
1. Engage young people aged 14 – 18 in creating youth friendly outdoors solutions in our community by participating in workshops and idea creation/presentation within a two day hackathon.
2. Engage adult professionals from the local community in mentoring the young people through this process of developing ideas.
3. Increase the collaboration between the business sector in the local community and the civic sector through establishing relationships and involving them in the process of mentoring.
4. Increase collaboration between local government and the youth in Probishtip through creating a platform for collaboration in ideation and decision making.
We congratulate the grantees and wish them a successful implementation of the projects.
As part of the grant scheme, calls for in-kind support of micro projects and initiatives are open and you can find more about them at the following Link .
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