The Initiative Board from Lipkovo is actively working towards developing youth policies and encouraging youth activism in their municipality. It was created in the framework of the project ”Development of Local Youth Policies and Local Youth participation in 12 Municipalities”, funded by the European Union. During the past month the Board members attended trainings on the topics of youth advocacy, youth work , advocacy campaigning and other topics that will serve as a support for the future youth council of Lipkovo. The trainings were provided by partnering organizations MOF (Youth Educational Forum) and CID (Center for Intercultural Dialogue)

The development of the Youth Council aims at giving the young people the means for quality activism and meaningful participation on local level and at presenting them as a partner in the implementation of youth policies. Moreover, the formed umbrella organizations will be working on creating local youth strategies, action plans for its implementation with a final goal to advance the position and the conditions for life of young people on local and national level.

During the past training weekends the participants received input on the topics of youth policies, organizing events and the new media, how to make strategies and research. Their task was to realize a mapping of their community in order to identify the needs of the young people. Thus, the action plan for the nearest future comprises two stages:

  • Organizing an essay competition on the problems of the youth in Lipkovo. The essays will be evaluated by a jury of experts.
  • Organizing a research campaign on the field to identify the problems of young people, which will culminate with an official event where the members will present the results of their research in front of a vast audience including municipality officials.

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The deadline set by the council is the end of December. Fejzuli, one of the participants, shared that the received input from the trainers is on a high level and that she is amazed by the good communication both among the participants and with the trainers. ”The activity I liked the most was working to create a project plan that will aim to attract people and persuade them to join our projects. If we can participate in this kind of activities more often, we will gain the necessary confidence to be more active and contribute to the improvement of our community”, believes Arta, yet another participant who enjoyed the trainings and who is eager to start working on the designed project ideas.

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