Participating counties: Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia and Turkey
Youth Banks Hub for Western Balkans and Turkey Network
Website of the Network: https://ybhwbt.eu/
About Network
Network of 20 youth organizations from the Western Balkan and Turkey whose objective is to ensure greater involvement of young people in economic, politic and social dimension of this part of Europe. In previous 4 years, the Network have created Youth Participation Index, unique method for measuring the level of opportunity of young people to be involved in decision making process. According to the findings, the Index indicates that one of the biggest challenges in all countries is related to the economic dimension, the issue of employment of young people. On the other hand, the analysis indicates that data on young people from vulnerable groups are being insufficiently and inconsistently collected, which additionally aggravates their position on the labor market, and that most of these countries have high NEET youth rates - young person who is "Not in Education, Employment, or Training". Accordingly, the Network will focus on the issue of employment of young people coming from vulnerable groups in the new project.
Objectives of the project
The aim of the project is to contribute to strengthened regional collaboration, participatory democracies and the EU approximation process in the Western Balkans and Turkey (WB&T) in the area of youth employment with focus on:
- To create informed and constituency-based solutions for improved youth employment policies in the WB&T
- To increase the capacity of CSOs to pilot and promote innovative solutions for improved employment of NEET youth in the WB&T
- To increase engagement and influence of CSOs in raising public awareness on youth employment in the WB&T
Main activities
1. Advocacy efforts will start from extensive researches which will provide for an evidence-based approach in proposing more favourable youth employment policies in the region, with special focus on country-specific youth issue, such as young women (Montenegro, Turkey), socio economically disadvantaged youth (North Macedonia, Albania) and youth from rural areas (Serbia), considering that these subgroups constitute the largest percentage of the NEET youth.
2. Capacity building and sub-granting will be applied with the purpose of strengthening CSOs ability to pilot youth employment models for NEET youth at the local level, and shape economic environment for youth. Around 100 CSOs will have opportunity to participate to the capacity building program, while up to 50 CSOs will be selected for financial support and implementation of proposed of youth employment model.
3. Awareness raising aim at involving as many stakeholders in the improvement of NEET youth employment, particularly the influence of CSOs in this area, trough meetings, different type of events and media campaign.
Partners and associates
“WB&T for EmploYouth” Project is carried out by five youth organizations from these countries, specifically: Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation (Serbia), Prima Association (Montenegro), Youth Alliance (North Macedonia), Partners Albania - for Change and Development (Albania) and Community Volunteers Foundation (Turkey). The Project is supported by the European Commission, as part of its efforts towards continuous upgrading of relationship of public authorities with the youth.
Associates in this project are: Albania - National Employment Services (soon National Employment and Skills Agency), Montenegro - Ministry of Sports and Youth; Chamber of Economy of Montenegro; North Macedonia - Agency for Youth and Sport, and Municipality of Gazi Baba; Serbia - Ministry of Youth and Sports; and Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of Serbia; Turkey - Women’s Labour and Employment Initiative - KEIG.
