<< Background >>We believe that the topics of youth and cities are connected organically as the concern of urban areas for their young generation is basically about the future of that urban area in 20-30 years. So, shaping cities today together with young people will stay at the core of the future of that same city in the long-term future.We aim to put youth volunteering at the epicentre of urban resilience and long-term urban development based on equity, participation and shared vision by creating and delivering an urban transformation process made of a theory framework, practical tools and digitally integrated volunteer management mechanism regarding the active civic engagement of young people in urban life through volunteering.THE NEXT CRISISThe coronavirus crisis will change our lives for good. Although countries were the ones to respond to this threat firsts, there are two main complementary directions unfolding. First, the European Union emerged as an actor being able to mitigate this huge health and economic threat. At the same time, cities and local communities emerged as key catalysts in taking care of the most vulnerable and in finding local solutions to local challenges. Urban volunteering for urgent causes effectively spiked. During 2020, a broad survey was conducted in several European cities. Over 7,700 young people provided insights and answers on how they perceive the crisis. Besides the fact that their sense of happiness decreased by an average of 2.6 points from a 10-point scale, young people provided feedbacks such as how broken their social interaction became.Active community participation through volunteering is a strong way forward in getting through this crisis. It brings young people out of lethargy and it rebuilds the social fabric in urban settlements and their metropolitan surroundings.WHY VOLUNTEERING?Among answers provided by young people, a large majority underlines the willingness to be part of community activities, but they do not know what exactly to do. They are looking for opportunities. On the other hand, while there is no detailed information from each city, the LEAP study (leapcluj.ro) conducted during 2020 in Cluj mapped over 720 stakeholders of all kinds who provide services and opportunities for involvement for young people. Hence, we believe there is a disconnect between the offer (young people and their free time) and demand (organisations who are looking to involve young people).EXISTING MODELSEven before the COVID-19 crisis, the overall concept of the project took birth already during a preparatory meeting which took place in Novi Sad in December 2019. During the meeting, our hosts presented their local NVS volunteering system which was put in place for their OPENS 2019 European Youth Capital programme. NVS was considered as one of the best practices of the programme, however, local coordinators highlighted the need to make it more professional and to enhance it with the use of digital technologies which could make the user experience and management much easier. Those who attended the meeting agreed to take this initiative further and agreed to align efforts in developing a strategic cooperation in the Balkans as the social fabric in this region is relatively similar.SOLUTION – A DOUBLE SIDED PLATFORMAnalysing models and tools for value proposition planning, we identified that the model we need to create is one of a double-sided platform, a tool and framework which connects young people who aim to do volunteering and providers of volunteering opportunities. YouVol 21 as a concept was identified as a tool which would be able to provide a broader approach to volunteering where all actors could be supported to find the best opportunities for volunteering and volunteer hosting while being empowered in having a better learning experience with the support of an integrated validation and certification mechanism.<< Objectives >>GOAL AND OBJECTIVESWe aim to put youth volunteering at the epicentre of urban resilience and long-term urban development based on equity, participation and shared vision by creating and delivering an urban transformation process made of a theory framework, practical tools and digitally integrated volunteer management mechanism regarding the active civic engagement of young people in urban life through volunteering.SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES* SO1: to enhance the work of 7 cities South-European cities in supporting volunteering as a key tool for enhancing the solidarity of citizens in a European spirit,* SO2: to empower over 10,000 young urban citizens and 350 organisational stakeholders in being an active part of their communities and in assuming a non-material contribution to social interactions and community development, capping over 100,000 volunteer hours before the conclusion of this project,* SO3: to develop a scalable model of urban youth volunteer management (white paper, delivery tools, support platform model, 7 delivered functional platforms and actions),* SOD (organisational development): to create a working cooperation platform and network of 7 starting cities in the field of volunteering, a platform which can be enhanced later in further domains concerning youth, too.<< Implementation >>MANAGEMENT SERVING THE OVERALL PURPOSE ON SHORT-TERMThe overall management structures within the coordination organisation and partners, completed by the cooperation and co-creation mechanisms serve breaking down overall objectives and achievable results at the level of each activity as an intermediate step towards these outcomes. PROJECT MANAGEMENT MEETINGS SERVING THE INNOVATION PROCESSWe are planning 7 project meetings, each taking part in a different partner hosting city. They mark key moments which are closely related to the timing of delivering intellectual outputs. M1 and M7 are opening and closing meetings, M3 and M5 are transition meetings between intellectual outputs connected to multiplier events, while M2, M4 and M6 are progress monitoring meetings at half-way point in delivering intellectual outputs. M2, M4 and M6 are also connected to capacity building learning activities. INTELLECTUAL WORK DELIVERING CONTENTEvery activity evolves around delivering 3 intellectual outputs in the project. Each output is built around key stages of the Design Thinking method. EMPATHISE and DEFINE (O1) takes inspiration from existing models of cities and existing volunteering frameworks such as P.A.V.E. The second one focuses on creating an integrated framework and platform (dubbed YouVol 21 for now as a working name) through a creative process focusing on the IDEATE and PROTOYPE stages of Design Thinking, while the third output takes Design Thinking further, creating seven practical adaptations of the framework and platform at local level (TEST and IMPLEMENT).LEARNING ACTIVITIES SERVING INTELLECTUAL WORK AND OUTPUTSEach learning activity serves one intellectual output. C1 supports the capacity building and co-creation of and with key stakeholders from each partner city (municipality, youth sector and youth support sector) within O1, starting from the current situation in the 6 partnering cities regarding volunteering, C2 supports the creative process within O2 involving the same stakeholders creating a strong ownership in the results of this output, while C3 serves the practical deployment of the new urban youth volunteering framework and platform with the support of local Connectors, who are trained during this learning activity.MULTIPLIER ACTIVITIES SERVING DISSEMINATIONMultiplier events are foreseen at the end of delivering each intellectual output. The third event will refer to present not just the results of the last output, but also preliminary results of previous outputs. The size of the third event is planned to be bigger than the events happening during the intermediate phases of the project. Additional multiplier actions at local level will enhance the visibility of the project and the awareness about achieved results and the practical utility of the innovation process.MONITORING AND EVALUATIONMonitoring will be conducted by the management team of the coordinating and partner organisations based on a set of key indicators while conducting management actions, too. Evaluation will be conducted by a layman, an expert contracted from exceptional costs who will deliver 2 interim and one final report capturing on how the work of partners made results possible and how achieved results are relating to original plans, assumptions and forecasts.DISSEMINATION SERVING THE OVERALL PURPOSE ON LONG-TERMA wide range of dissemination activities is foreseen for the final 3 months of the project targeting a wide range of stakeholders from local, national and European level.INTEGRATION AND SUSTAINABILITYAll these actions and measures will be reinserted into the DNA of the 6 urban youth ecosystems. Additionally, the coordinator will integrate the acquired expertise in its work within the Citizen Y Resource Centre, an institution which will provide availability and accessibility to the projects outputs and will work on maximising the medium and long-term impact of results on European level.<< Results >>We achieve the deployment of 6 new urban youth volunteering integrated mechanisms based on which we understand the working mechanisms of the newly developed framework in practice, too, capturing value.We connect 6 South-East European cities in co-creating a working urban youth volunteering mechanism enhanced by an overall philosophy, methodology and tools.We involve over 10,000 young urban citizens and 350 stakeholders in consulting and co-creating the new urban youth volunteering mechanism and platform.We improve the learning, acting and feeling perception of young people by 15% (measured through levels of satisfaction measures by ratings) and their perception about connectivity, access to resources and integration in the community through the activity of institutional stakeholders.We cap the first 100k volunteering hours organised and monitored through the newly deployed urban youth volunteering mechanism.We involve over 1000 young people with fewer opportunities in the consultation and co-creation process and in the first stage deployment of new urban youth volunteering mechanisms.We develop, consolidate and validate the YouVol 21 philosophy which builds on two key target groups and six key components: ME (the volunteer) through learning, acting and feeling and US (the ecosystem) through connecting, supporting and integrating. We create a complete framework made of 6 elements (concept, white paper, tools, platform, quality label, pool of connectors) combining theory (philosophy), practical tools and digital integration and management through which all actors of youth volunteering can interact.We demonstrate how the model can be adapted to practice by deploying new urban youth volunteering mechanisms and capturing their value through 6 practical study cases.We create the conditions for other European cities to adopt, adapt and implement similar local urban youth volunteering networks (scaling and multiplying) while becoming youth volunteering friendly cities (quality label).The network of initial 6 cities will provide the conditions for further improvement of cooperation between them in the South-East European region with the possibility to extend this cooperation further.A newly developed expertise and methodology regarding urban youth volunteering mechanisms will be added to the work and resources of the Citizen Y Resource Centre, which will provide a sustainability regarding the availability of services and solutions.The coordinating city of Cluj-Napoca will define its strategy for applying for the European Volunteering Capital title of 2025, as a way to achieve further performances in the field of volunteering.PRODUCT INNOVATION: We develop a full framework based on 6 systemic elements (concept, white paper, tools, platform, quality label, pool of connectors) with the help of which urban areas can develop local youth volunteering mechanism and can cap an additional pool of human resources in serving the needs and shared future of the community.PROCESS INNOVATION: We innovate how a young person can engage in volunteering while gaining practical skills and enhancing a sense of belonging to a local and to the European community.We innovate how cities empower and support youth volunteering efforts on local level, connecting relevant actors and integrating efforts in policies and strategies serving a shared vision of the future.POSITION INNOVATION: We put volunteering at the core of integrating young people in developing a shared future of a city while sharing common values, enforcing civic engagement and participation.PARADIGM INNOVATION: We shift the perception on how human resources of a city can serve the co-creation of the future without financial resources (money) or material transactions while serving societal needs.

409 natural disasters marked 2019 around the world. Roughly 11,000 people lost their lives in the tragic events, and numerous families were left without a roof over their heads due to floods, earthquakes, tsunami, typhoons, fires, landslides or drought. With the global warming and climate change being more real than ever and our humanity being constantly put on a test, there is a need to reshape the approach towards disaster management: to engage the active young citizens in building the community resilience and to support creation of a global society founded on solidarity as one of the key EU values. Serbia itself, has been in focus of the global attention within the Southeast and Central Europe floods of 2014, resulting with lives lost, landslides and ca. 1.55 billion euros worth damage. Numerous studies have shown the importance of early engagement of young people in planning and preparedness efforts for disasters. The high numbers of fatalities, among them many children and youth, are yet another evidence that educational approach is not enough and additional education and training in emergency and disaster management is undeniably necessary. Through the project Youth PURPOSE: Preparedness of YoUngsters, ResPonse, RecOvery, Solidarity, and VoluntEering in Times of Crises, we, partners from Serbia, Italy, Vietnam, Indonesia, North Macedonia, Ethiopia and Namibia support a creation of an ecosystem based on solidarity and volunteering for management of disasters and hazards, thus, strengthening the resilience of the youth and the communities. Strengthening youth resilience will be achieved by building the capacities of youth and youth organizations for: education and empowerment on disaster prevention, preparedness, response and recovery; usage of digital tools and new technologies for disaster management; youth volunteering and volunteer management and relief efforts; as well as supporting know-how exchange and skills sharing. Providing education and training of youth and youth workers on the topic through developing appropriate non-formal educational curriculum on volunteer management in times of crisis, we would strengthen the quality of youth work and inspire active citizenship among youth. PURPOSE goes in line with the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development (SG 11 & 13), UN Youth Strategy (strategic priority in resilience building), the EU Youth Strategy (Connect & Empower) prioritizing to “Encourage young people to become active citizens, agents of solidarity and positive change of communities”, as well as the CoE youth sector strategy 2030, with thematic focus on youth work development. Nonetheless, it also addresses the aims of the Erasmus+ Guide 2020, such as fostering cooperation and exchanges in the field of youth between Programme and Partner Countries (from Europe, Asia and Africa), but also promoting transnational non-formal learning mobility between them, especially targeting young people with fewer opportunities.

The project “Dive in Social Entrepreneurship” was implemented in a period of 17 months and it included the following partners: YAK (Macedonia), NYFB (Bulgaria), IBC (Turkey), OENEF (Greece), EuroDEMOS (Romania), ACI (Costa Rika), Art 22 (Brazil) and Belle & Co (South Africa). The key aim of the project was to provide a way for active development of human capital, practical encouragement of social entrepreneurial activities and establishment of effective pathways to youth employment in strategic cooperation with different stakeholders. Within the project we have implemented the capacity building activities (kick of meeting, local researches and evaluation meeting) and mobility activities (seminar, training courses, study visit and job shadowing). Through implementation of the activities we were striving towards to tackle various aspects of Social Entrepreneurship (SE) and develop competencies of all involved actors to effectively fight youth unemployment. The activities were based on variety of techniques of non-formal education and they succeeded to support active role of the young people in the project activities. Furthermore, we are satisfied that the project activities targeted various groups including young people and leaders, youth workers, program managers and coordinators, representatives of institutions and local authorities. Besides developing capacities of the participants the project also aimed to especially support creating cross-sectorial cooperation that is being consider by the partners of this project to be one of the key element in the process of creating support entrepreneurship environment in participant’s countries. The project brought several key results as: 8 national reports from the research phase, Comparative analysis, reports with key methods and lessons learned from each mobility activities and ‘Guide for Future Entrepreneurs’ that contains lessons learned through project and practical tips that can be applied by different stakeholders in the communities. All of these results were published online on the project web site. Moreover, each participating organization realized one activity where the results and conclusions from the project were presented. To sum up, within 17 months of work the project “Dive in Social Entrepreneurship” reached over 1,000 young people from Europe and the world, FB network of 115 young people, youth workers, social entrepreneurs, over 100 pieces of media coverage of the project activities, 36 TV and radio pieces achieved.

Key motivation behind the project ‘Fighting Gender Inequality through Youth Work’ is to raise capacities of the organizations to effectively address gender based issues and contribute to creating gender equal society.Overall goal of capacity building project ‘Fighting Gender Inequality through Youth Work’ is to promote gender equal society by strengthening competencies of CSOs representatives coming from participating organizations to tackle roots of gender inequality and effectively respond on them. Objectives: 1.To develop the understanding of the role of gender and equality in youth work;2.To train staff of participating organizations in gender awareness and anti-discriminatory practices;3.To increase community awareness on gender issues through public actions (capacity building activities) based on using following innovative elements: integrated media tools and storytelling;4. To improve networking amongst involved CSOs and other stakeholders and support sharing best practices of gender related activities. The project ‘Fighting Gender Inequality through Youth Workconsists from several mobility activities (training courses, seminar, study visit and series of job shadowing) and capacity building activities focusing on raising capacities of local stakeholders to effectively address gender inequality. And it will be realized in cooperation of partners coming from 8 countries Albania, Greece, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Turkey and Kosovo.

"<< Background >>The cross-borders areas of all three countries are facing high level of unemployment, especially between youth, lack of opportunities for young people to get active, to work on their personal and professional development, lack of cross-sectorial cooperation between the representatives of youth sectors, educational institutions, local governments and businesses. One of the consequences of this situation is brain drain of young people to the countries’ capitals, or abroad.Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic hit these areas strongly and brought many challenges in terms of lack of quality youth activities, lack of digital tools enabling cooperation between youth organizations and other actors representing these areas. By the project we aim to increase quality in the work, activities and practices of involved organizations with the main goal to fight youth unemployment in cross-border regions of North Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria. We aim to increase the capacities of the staff of involved organizations, their youth workers in the line with these objectives:-to create digital ‘Networking Platform’, practical tool giving young people, representatives of different sectors easy access to information on the opportunities, possibility to network and to build own capacities, especially in the areas of youth work, youth unemployment, entrepreneurship in cross-borders regions;-to increase capacities of participating organizations to cooperate across sectors at international level in the process of developing effective and sustainable youth programmes fighting youth unemployment in cross-border areas, developing entrepreneurial competences of young people;-to build effective partnerships between the organizations setting the base for new projects leading to the improvement in the cross-border areas.<< Objectives >>The project overall GOAL is to enhance cooperation between the cross-border regions of Greece, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria by supporting online networking and cooperation between representatives of different sectors (youth, education, business) with a focus on addressing youth unemployment and providing young people access to the new opportunities developing their employability and entrepreneurial competences. Specific OBJECTIVES:-Creating ONLINE NETWORKING PLATFORM enhancing networking, cooperation between the representatives of different sectors and enabling young people from cross-border regions to look for and to access new opportunities - PR 1;-Raising AWARENESS of the representatives of different sectors on the possibilities of online networking and cooperation in the cross-border regions - PR 1;-EQUIPPING young people with information on the possibilities of upgrading their competencies by subscribing to the platform.<< Implementation >>The project activities are divided in 3 work packages that are interconnected between each other. Work package 1 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT The first work package is envisaging activities dedicated for successful preparation and implementation of the activities. Key events are three Transnational Meetings: 1. The FIRST TRANSNATIONAL MEETING (month 2, December 2021) will serve as a kick-off meeting and will take place in Skopje, North Macedonia.2. The SECOND TRANSNATIONAL MEETING (month 9, July 2022) will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria. It will gather the partners to discuss and assess the progress in the elaboration of intellectual output PR 1 as well as the general management conditions of the project. 3.The THIRD TRANSNATIONAL MEETING (month 19, June 2023) will take place in Florina, Greece and it will serve as the project’s final event. Work package 2 - ACTIVITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT, TESTING AND LAUNCHING THE NETWORKING PLATFORM During the second work package the project team will be dedicated on the Networking Platform - key result of the project. The process for the development of the Networking Platform will include: 1. RESEARCH PHASE: to identify the needs of the representatives of the different sectors (youth, education, business), young people in the cross-borders regions in the area of unemployment and entrepreneurship. This phase will include activities at national level. The organizations will conduct questionnaires, online questionnaires, focus groups to gather needed information and to have a better understanding of the needs and interests of TGs;2. DEVELOPMENT and TESTING PHASE: the development of the Networking Platform and Testing throughout inclusive process. 3. LAUNCHING and PROMOTING of the Networking Platform. Work package 3 - PROMOTION AND DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES Striving towards raising awareness among the young people as well as other relevant stakeholders about the opportunities that the Networking Platform is providing we will implement 2 national and 1 international multiplier events: 1. National Multiplier Event in Bulgaria, Sofia, will be organized by the project partner ‘’Step forward"" to disseminate project result - Networking Platform and to support transferring lessons learned from the process of creating, testing it, to ensure the widest possible visibility to the project’s outcomes. 2. National Multiplier Event in Florina, Greece, will be organized by lead partner ‘OENEF’ to disseminate project result - Networking Platform and it will have regional approach in Western Macedonia region of the country. 3. International Multiplier Event will be hosted in North Macedonia, Skopje, by ‘Youth Alliance-Krusevo’. It will be the occasion for local and national stakeholders representing North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece to meet with international representatives interested in the topics of the projects: cooperation between cross-border regions, addressing youth unemployment, developing entrepreneurial competencies of young people, increasing their changes at the labor market.<< Results >>The Networking Platform is a key result of the project. This platform will enable cooperation and networking between the representatives of different sectors in the cross-border areas of North Macedonia, Greece, and Bulgaria. This platform is expected to ensure full access of young people, young people with fewer opportunities to information on the activities, projects, opportunities in the line with fighting youth unemployment, development of young people competencies, and raising their employability competencies. The platform is expected to ensure access of youth organizations, representatives of educational institutions, business to the contacts, good practices in their field of work. Moreover, the platform is expected to provide an opportunity to network and exchange information, consult issues appealing to involved stakeholders. The NETWORKING PLATFORM will be published in English and the languages of the participating organizations and will become a meeting point in the digital space enabling the exchange of information, know-how and moreover enabling building partnerships and a common future for the next generation of the cross-border regions."