Youth Programme

* Encouraging youth participation by motivating and preparing youth in taking active role in solving their own problems and problems of a community and wider society
* Changing patriarchical cultural viewpoint of "youth-problem which needs to be solved" to "youth - social capital of the society which needs to be invested in", working on overcoming the rift and setting up the partnering relations between "youth and adults" affecting the decision-makers, citizens, media to not deal with youth as characterized by the patriarchical community, but to participate in the development of the society where youth are seen as significant social capital which needs investment in.

In the past five years, working across Serbia, we have developed the model which aims to encourage youth in finding specific way to participate and follow through various attempts of their formal and informal organizing. By encountering various challenges, experimenting and actively seeking the best solution for concrete problems, new program components were being developed. The end result represents a special model of work with youth which is the basis for one of the broadest programs for encouraging and supporting youth participation in the country. The most significant characteristics of the model and work with youth are reflected in its flexibility to respond to special conditions of various groups/organizations in different towns and specific methodology on which it was based and by which it achieves significant and longlasting changes regarding the position of youth.

Ever since the beginning of the process and the implementation , working across Serbia, we have been paing special attention to the development of special relations with the local community based on understanding the community, all its specificities and problems, but also the inclusion of all relevant actors in the community (leaders, representatives of the local self-government, civil sector etc). In thinking about and developing the methodology of work we kept in mind that reaching significant changes assumes the necessity of work on the local level by encouraging and supporting local youth initiative, while at the same time working on the development of the institutional support at the national level with aim of securing sustainability of these initiatives. The second important moment was related to re-positioning of youth in the society, which primarily refers to reducing the gap between youth and adults aiming to empower efficient partnership which would aside from education of youth, offer support and space for putting into practise and applying what was learned. Only by this cooperation between youth and adults, where the power and responsibility in the decision making processes is equally divided, can we achieve successful transition of patriarchical society, such as the Serbian society today, into open and modern democratic society.

The following scheme offers the best insight into the whole program and the role