Children & Youth Development Project (LIL)

closed

The Children and Youth Development Project in Macedonia, will significantly increase social cohesion, through the social integration of youth at risk from different socio-cultural backgrounds. To this end, community-based approaches will be tested to support adolescents, and youth at risk, and, institutional capacity will be strengthened, to contribute to the implementation of a Children and Youth Strategy. The two main components will: 1) continue to test methods, and experimentation, through existing Babylon youth centers. The inter-ethnic youth activities cover sports, computer, and information technology (IT) training. And, in addition to regular scholastic activities, English language, social skills and creativity, journalism, and seminars and workshops will be supported. Innovative approaches will be explored for youth social integration, through the use of outreach, and targeted pilot programs, by establishing eight new centers, proposed by nongovernmental organizations in a demand-driven selection process, designed to elicit new ideas in disadvantaged areas. Expansion of the Youth and Sport's innovative drug abuse prevention program will be supported for all secondary schools in the country, and to the Babylon centers; and, 2) consolidate the youth component, by supporting the participatory development of the Children, and Youth Strategy, to promote ownership, and sustainability of the program, and, by establishing monitoring mechanisms to facilitate institutional capacity building.