Center for Intercultural Dialogue (CID) is a civil society organization working to promote intercultural acceptance and active citizenship through capacity building processes, education and youth work. The organization’s activity focuses on many aspects which are of interest for young people: from provision of services and information, to research and support for policy-making and networking.
CID is working to create diverse responsible and cooperative communities where citizens are actively contributing to the social development and integration. Our mission is to ensure sustainable community development by creating opportunities for quality engagement of civil society, advancing learning opportunities, and active involvement of young people and other citizens.
Our objectives:
- To develop and provide quality learning opportunities within non-formal education for diverse groups of learners
- To offer capacity development of civil society to directly involve citizens in community decision-making through inclusive work-practices and networking opportunities
- To increase quality of education and learning services through encouragement of cross-sector cooperation, lifelong learning programmes and innovative education tools
- To facilitate youth support systems as well as participation mechanisms for young people through quality youth work and inclusive policies development
Youth Work provided in CID
CID is running the youth support system in the Kumanovo municipality known among youth as MultiКулти Youth Center. The main aim of the youth center is to establish ground for sustainable multiethnic cooperation by fostering intercultural learning and communication among children and young people. In addition, this is made possible by promoting democratic citizenship and fostering active participation of youth within the main decision making processes of the community. Since the establishment of the MultiКулти in 2010, a neutral platform was created where youth from different ethnic backgrounds follow joint activities. CID also runs a set of programmes for new youth workers called the Youth Workers Academy, offering well-planned processes for development of competences needed to work in the youth support systems. Apart of this CID runs a programme of detached youth work in Kumanovo. The youth work offered by CID annually gathers over 2000 beneficiaries.
Youth Participation processes and CID
CID provides the opportunity for many young people in the community to participate in open and structured dialogue with other stakeholders and take part in decision making process for their importance, both on school and municipal level.
In schools CID is ensuring proper and democratic elections of school council and further offers training for the elected representatives to better understand their role in the school decision-making and to undertake initiatives which enable active student participation.
On local level CID has initiated the creation of the Local Youth Council in Kumanovo – the first one in Macedonia which ensured all forms of organized youth are represented including the political party youth organizations.
Educational support provided in CID
The development of educational process especially in non-formal education is one of the strongest points of CID’s work in the past years. CID has been dedicated to develop competences of youth trainers to be able to support and promote the process of non-formal learning in different contexts. In order to support the development of trainers’ competences CID’s trainers have been involved in different training activities in Europe by both delivering training and participating in training’s for trainers. CID is offering training and educational consultancy to various public and private institutions and organizations.
CID as facilitator of inter-community dialogue
CID is actively facilitating and participating in civil society platforms which enhance the inter-community relations in Kumanovo and Macedonia. The platform in Kumanovo is focusing on the Commission for Inter-community Relations and involving other important local stakeholders such as the local institutions, the Municipal Council and the Civil Society Organization. On National Level CID is a member of several civil society coalitions aiming to improve inter-ethnic relations by introducing better legal systems and combating segregation and discrimination.
CID International
CID is one of the most experienced mobility agencies ensuring youth mobility through quality educational exchanges and recently involved in general mobility of teachers, school support staff, and people on the labor market in general.
CID offers as well international volunteering opportunities through summer camps and long term volunteering in Europe and globally.
