Juse goes Balkan
Youth Center “Perspektiva” and SAJV are implementing in Albania the project “JUSE Goes Balkan” which aims at sharing best practices in regards to youth in decision making, through involvement in youth councils, between Albania and Switzerland.
The mobility project has five goals:
1. Increase advocating capacities and skills of youth workers and youth organizers for their involvement in decision making.
The mobility project derives from a previous collaboration supported by Movetia, “We make democracy” which took place in 2019. During the project the participants were asked to develop need-based projects for their own realities and one of the planned projects identified the development and training of advocating skills as a major benefit. For Perspektiva and SAJV advocacy for youth is a cornerstone aspect of their work, therefore capacity building was agreed as being one of the main goals.
2. Deepening the practical knowledge about campaigning and youth led advocacy as key tool for democratic citizenship and youth representation.
How to design and carry out a campaign is a crucial skill set for advocacy. The activity wants to provide input for the participants on campaigning strategies, fostering mutual learning through sharing best practices from peers but also highlight new ways of campaigning. The latter objective rose from the sense of urgency created by the current global health situation and the development of new tools and technologies, which broadens the scope and impact of a campaign significantly, as the outreach is far wider.
3. Exchange of best practices between Switzerland and Albania about involvement of young people in decision making and broadening the (international) network.
Switzerland and Albania are connected through a high number of individuals who have Albanian roots and family, but live in Switzerland. The partners understand this undertaking as an opportunity to overcome barriers and decrease stereotypes between activists from both countries. By bringing youth workers and organizers together to learn from each other and enrich their personal perspectives the partners believe that sustainable relationships and ally-ship can be formed.
4. Develop collaborative strategies among the participants to foster inclusive decision making which can be replicated in the local communities.
The partners believe that democratic decision making needs to be based on inclusion and must be accessible for everyone. Current processes aiming to include youth seldom reflect this. The activity wants to enable the participants to identify obstacles and suppression techniques, that hinder equal participation in decision making processes. The set of competences of the participating countries are envisioned to complement each other – with the Swiss partners bringing an established youth participation structure to explore to the table, while and the Albanian the knowledge about inclusive mechanisms and methods.
5. Creating an inclusive and safe space for young people from different communities and minorities in decision making structures in Albania and Switzerland.
The partners of the mobility project observe with concern the developments in public decision making, where often the processes seem opaque and the outcomes do not take the needs of society as a whole into account. Especially concerns of youth and marginalized groups do not seem to be reflected in the decisions and their voices not heard in the process. Therefore the project raises awareness about daily challenges of young people from marginalized and vulnerable groups when it comes to their space to be involved in decision making levels, reduce possible negative stigmas linked to those social groups, and challenge their own perceptions on inter-ethnic relations through peer-to-peer learning and personal exchanges. .
The planned mobility activity will, take place in Durrës, Albania from 04 May 2022 – 10 May 2022.
In regards to the expenses of participants please read below
- All costs to attend the mobility will be covered 100 %
- Transport costs will be fully reimbursed
Profile of participants are young activists, youth leaders and youth workers, age 18-30 years old, who are engaged in civil society organisations or informal youth-led initiatives from Albania and Switzerland who are interested in developing themselves in the area of inclusion, democratic citizenship and youth in decision making.
Call for application can be found here.