Balkan Emerging Leaders Initiative

ongoing

This project aims to empower young people in participating countries to participate in civic life, focusing on human rights and democratic values. It will directly influence 600 students from 24 secondary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, and North Macedonia by strengthening their student parliaments (SPs) through a comprehensive capacity-building programme (CBP). The CBP will build on the one developed within the previous CEP EU-funded project, “Youth on Watch” focusing on youth civic participation. It will enable students to identify and address local issues through school-level actions. CEP will design and deliver training to its project partners, and at least 120 school representatives will be supported in facilitating students’ participation. A core network of 20 young leaders in Serbia will be established. They will be empowered through another CBP dedicated to networking, advocacy, and leadership skills to be used in creating and implementing an action in one Serbian community. A regional network will be established upon this core network, consisting of emerging leaders from the 24 schools mentioned above. Mentoring support will be provided to both SPs and the network members. The project will result in 600 secondary school students' increased capacity to address human rights and democracy topics, the establishment of a sustainable Young Leaders Network, and raised awareness of student participation in decision-making. Key outputs include the development and implementation of CBPs for students/young leaders, 24 school-level actions, one community-level action, two regional meetings, the establishment of a Regional Young Leaders Network, social media campaigns, a booklet documenting SPs actions, policy briefs for policymakers in each of the participating countries, and a final regional conference. Beyond direct beneficiaries, the project will indirectly impact all students in the participating schools, which is estimated to be 12,000 individuals.