"<< 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."