Youth hub western balkans and turkey network - CALL FOR NEW NETWORK
MEMBERS
Capacity Building Program and Financial Support in the frame of WB&T for EmploYouth project.
I - Description of the network
Apart from being candidates for the EU membership, a low
percentage of youth involvement in important decision-making processes in the
community and the fact that the current public policies affecting youth are not
directed at encouraging their involvement are in common for Western Balkans and
Turkey. Therefore, Youth
Hub Western Balkan and Turkey Network (YBHWBT) was initially founded in 2016 in order to ensure greater
involvement of young people in Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and
Turkey. Today, YHWBT network brings together 20 youth organizations engaged in
policy monitoring and research-based advocacy of solutions for political,
economic and social inclusion of youth, with special focus on youth employment.
The YHWBT Network is coordinated by five youth organizations: Ana and Vlade
Divac Foundation (Serbia), Prima Association (Montenegro), Youth Alliance -
Krusevo (North Macedonia), Partners Albania for Change and Development
(Albania) and Community Volunteers Foundation (Turkey), while is supported by the
European Commission, as part of its efforts towards continuous upgrading of
relationship of public authorities with the youth.
Network members have developed Youth Participation Index (YPI) -
unique method for measuring the level of opportunity of young people to be
involved in decision – making process which provides a comparative analysis of
data for the Western Balkan countries and Turkey. The YPI shows that a significant
discrepancy exists between the current situation in the all countries compared
to the European values or targeted figures by Europe 2020 Strategy. Based on
the YPI score, the monitoring reports become a guide for evidence-based policy
recommendations and advocacy initiatives.
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, in next 4 years the
Network will focus on the issue of employment of young people coming from
vulnerable groups in the new project.
The aim of the WB&T for EmploYouth project is to contribute to
strengthened regional collaboration, participatory democracies and the EU approximation
process in the Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey in the
area of youth employment with focus on:
· To create informed and constituency-based solutions for improved
youth employment policies;
· To increase capacity of CSOs to pilot innovative solutions for
improved employment of NEET youth;
· To increase engagement and influence of CSOs in raising public
awareness on youth employment.).
National
contact HUB organization - Further information about the program |
||
Albania |
Partners Albania for Change and Development |
|
Montenegro |
Prima Association |
|
North Macedonia |
Youth Alliance - Krusevo |
|
Serbia |
Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation |
|
Turkey |
Community Volunteers Foundation |
II-
call for the NEW NETWORK members - CAPACITY BUILDING,
AND FINANCIAL & MENTORING SUPPORT FOR CSOS
We
invite small and medium-sized organizations involved in improving the position of
young people from vulnerable categories at the local level to join the work and
future develop the Youth Hub Western Balkans and Turkey Network.
The Network
will target and directly engage 100 local, grassroots CSOs in Albania,
Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey, providing them with trainings
on operational management and the EU context and will pass on their know-how
regarding promotion and piloting of youth-suited business and employment models.
During the second phase of the program, 50 of these grassroot CSOs will receive
financial and mentoring support for their own projects.
The
total duration of the Capacity Building and Financial Support Programme is 18
months (6 months for the training and mentoring support and 12 months of
financial support). CSOs will be required to submit applications for a timeline
of 12 months.
The capacity
building and subgranting program program
will be implemented through 4 main steps:
STEP 1: Selection of 100 local
organisations to participate in the Capacity Building Program
During
the first selection procces 100 local organizations will be selected from
Albana, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey (20 organization in each
country). The capacity building trainings delivered to CSOs in the first six
months will build and strengthen capacities for the programmatic and
administrative requirement of the program, and thus help CSOs to create the
inovative employment solutions for youth from vulnerably groups. the program is
intended for:
1. Small
size organizations, foundations or assotioans of CSOs - organisations with an annual turnover less
than 15,000 euro
2.
Medium size organizations, foundations or assotioans of CSOs - organisations
with an annual turnover higher than 15.000 euro
Actual network members who used the capacity building
support program in the previous cycle are not eligible to apply to this
program.
STEP 2: Capacity Building Program
The
training program will contribute in the development and strengthening of the
CSOs capacities to prepare, develop and inovative employment solutions for
youth from vulnerably groups (NEET youth). The Capacity Building Program which
will be organized during September – November
2021, aiming to improve their knowledge, technical and management skills
necessary for piloting innovative models for youth employment.
Each
of the members of the YHWBT Network will organize an intensive 4-days training
program at local level covering the following topics:
(1) Promotion
and piloting of models of employment and business models that the NEET youth
could engage, including topics such as working with local businesses, digital
skills and tools for youth employment, etc;
(2) project
and financial management,
(3) EU-approximation
context,
(4) awareness-raising
and visibility of EU-funded actions
Following the training program,
organizations will be invited to develop their project ideas and apply for
financial support.
STEP 3: Call for project proposal,
award of grants, Contract signature
The
call for financial and mentoring support of projects will be restricted and
launched within the group of 100 CSOs (selected in STEP 1). At least 50 CSOs out of 100 CSOs
participating in the Capacity Building Program will be selected by a Selection
Committee for financial and mentoring support of their projects aimed at
empowering local NEET youth and piloting innovative employment solutions.
Size
of Sub-Grant: Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall
between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
-LOT
1: Maximum amount: EUR 5,000 – CSOs with annual turnover less than 15,000 EUR.
-LOT
2 Maximum amount: EUR 10,000 - CSOs with
annual turnover higher than 15,000 EUR.
After
approval of project and training component, grants will be awarded in March 2022.
Contract signature and start of the work plan implementation is planned from March
2022. The implementation should end in March 2023. The grant will award at
least 50 grants in total, 10 grants in each country (Albania, Montenegro, North
Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey). Maximum duration of awarded grant is 12 months.
STEP 4: Implementation of local project
and mentoring support
During
the one-year projects, aside from the financial support, subgranting CSOs will
also receive mentoring support in operational and financial management, and in
implementation of their projects, especially for NEET youth trainings and for
designing and implementing local awareness-raising activities. The mentoring
support will include regular monthly mentoring sessions of the youth CSOs
representatives with the national hubs and annual network meeting at the
national level in the course of development of their inovative solutions, and
in the course of its implementation.
The 50
CSOs, beneficiaries of the Capacity Building and Financial Support scheme, will
become members of the YHWBT network and will be included in its activities as:
participate in yearly consultative debates preceding the formulation of the
NEET youth-related policy proposals; in public outreach events, and they will
take part in trainings of local media and all events to be implemented at local
and regional level.
III. Application procedure
ü The call is opened to all interested CSOs operating in local
communities in the field of youth or socio-economic issues;
ü Interested candidates are invited to apply by completed the
following application form
ü Deadline for the submission of the applications is September 15th, 2021
ü Questions may be sent by e-mail no later than 5th of September 2021
to the national coordinators
The selection of applicants will be competitive and based on the information provided in the application form.
APPLY HERE – for organizations
from North Macedonia
