In Verona, 29 and 30 March were two days of meetings and exchange of experiences for the mobility participants of the NEUEYT project. Glocal Factory hosted 7 young people and policy makers from Cyprus (Hub Nicosia) and North Macedonia (Poraka Nova). On Wednesday, the group moved to Sona, a municipality a few kilometers from Verona and coordinator of a network of 37 municipalities in western Verona. Here the representatives of the Municipality explained to us the activities they carry out with the young people. After lunch at the Mangiabottoni social restaurant (which deals with the job placement of disabled people), in the afternoon we met the Paratod@s self-managed laboratory, a youth center that works above all with migrants and refugees, with particular attention to the home and to mental distress. Thursday morning was dedicated to visiting the city, while in the afternoon we had the opportunity to meet the policy makers of the city of Verona, in the third discussion table. The experience was rich and significant and, like all experiences of meeting and sharing, it gave us the opportunity to think, reflect, create and plan together for the future!
Once again the Municipality of Trikala turns its attention to the youth by organizing an event dedicated to alcohol abuse. With the cooperation of the Municipal Youth Council, the Municipality of Trikala took the initiative to coordinate this action against the use of alcohol by young children. The Directorate of Social Care organized this event with a number of experts on the subject and with the cooperation of the Community Center of them Municipality of Trikala and the Center for Integration of Immigrants. The event took place on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. The students of Elementary and high schools of Trikala were invited, in order to listen to the experts on the issues of alcohol, but, above all, to express themselves about what concerns them. Link: https://trikalacity.gr/event/alkool-apo-mena-einai-ochi-ekdilosi-gia-mathites-tries-apo-ton-dimo-trikkaion/
Yesterday, in Kasarna Hub Ohrid was held the final 3rd event of the Stakeholder table meetings where young people and relevant stallholders discussed the topic of youth engagement and participation in decision making and democratic processes. 24 participants, of whom 10 stakeholders, policy makers, professors and 14 young people had very productive debate about the issues and challenges they are facing every day, but also they had a chance to give recommendations of how to solve those issues. Their active participation and debating contribute to the whole process, where only 2 hours weren’t enough. We are happy that we had a chance to work with such a hard working and dedicated group of people, cohesive in any way but also the one we have gained trust that is willing to make the changes in our community. We are hoping that we will continue our collaboration in future projects and activities.
From 15-16 March Poraka Nova hosted the mobility event in Bitola, where participants (stakeholders and young people ) from Agder, Norway and Glocal Factory, Italy attended. The two day agenda was filled with visits to various venues were young people of Bitola have space to participate in different activities. From the Municipality of Bitola, to youth centers and youth organization and Universities we covered all important places were young people met stakeholders or policy makers. +10 participants of this event had intercultural shared experience on same topics, young people and their democratic participation in the processes.
During the first day, the first visit was reserved to the Municipality of Bitola, they presented to us their activities related to youth and sports, the grants that the municipality plans to allocate exclusively for youth organizations in the near future. They also presented us with the functioning of the local youth council and its role in the implementation of youth policies. They also showed us the newly opened youth center, where the YMCA organization currently operates. The stuff from youth cultural center presented to us their activities related to young people in the field of entrepreneurship, employment, culture, social protection. Additionally, YMCA shared their activities for organizing youth camps for young girls and young boys, with the aim of acquiring leadership skills and making social changes.
On the second day we visited Universities in Bitola, started with a meeting in Poraka Nova where we discussed some of the youth issues in Norway and Italy and after that we got a presentation from – Presentation of Young Entrepreneur from the company Bintern – Dimitar, and a – Presentation from the Youth Ambassador and Young Activist from the organization Youth for Change – Pece, where they both discussed the challenges and barriers that they had to overcome in their growth and development as professionals.
Afterwards visit to the International Slavic University was organized, where we got a presentation from the university and the students about their Erasmus+ program. After that we went to Faculty of Biotechnical Science – Bitola and Faculty of Biotechnical Science – Bitola. where we had a presentation from the school staff along with their students about their programs and exchanges. After that we got a presentation from the Faculty Student Assembly they presented their programs, events and experience.
Having collected our impressions from both days, we can say that we had a very productive event, filled with interesting discussions, presentations and visits. Some of the conclusions were that young people from Macedonia and Italy are facing similar problems regarding youth participation and less involvement in decision making process. Macedonian youth are very creative and innovative from the various problems they face, so they constantly look for and create new innovative solutions to approach problems and find solutions for them. On the other and Norway has more advanced system for including young people in democratic process, their politicians are more open provide easy access to approach them and provide space were young people’s voice are heard and their issues are resolved or addressed very efficiently. All participants from abroad had very good impression on how Macedonian institutions are open for collaboration and provided insightful presentations for youth related topics.
On the 15th of March Trikala’s Youth Council had their first open event. The youngsters choose to start their public presence with an issue that is extremely important for Greek society: violence against women.
The event took place with the collaboration of the local Support Centre for Victims of Violence and it was divided in two parts:
Information from the staff of the Support Center for Women Victims of Violence of the Municipality of Trikala
Open discussion among attendees on issues of gender-based violence and equality.
