Honeycomb of Participation in National Level Youth Organizations

Project summary

The project "Honeycomb of Participation in National Level Youth Organizations" is addressing one of the key issues in national-level youth organizing: the aspect of real effective and meaningful participation, quality management and outreach. It is lasting from October 2014 to April 2016 and involves 4 partners (CID Macedonia, CIM Horyzonty Poland, TOG Turkey and Out-of-the-box Belgium). The innovation in the project comes from the theme of the project itself. In the past programme (Youth in Action) but also in the current Erasmus Plus, many youth organizations are listing themselves as national-level structures. This means that they are working with youth coming from different areas and that youth are having a say in their activities. However, the capacity of youth organizations to run effective management of a national level youth organization has never been specifically addressed in any programme or research and it is needed very much. The project will address the following questions/issues: 1. How to manage democratically youth organizations and clubs in different towns and to link them on national leavel in a meaningful way 2. How to ensure active participation and links between young people from rural areas and remote areas, with the central secretariat of the organization 3. How to address youth policies and ensure effective European exchange and cooperation between youth from a local club and the national-level youth secretariat 4. Are the local level youth clubs allowing enough space for practical development of strategies and competences The project is set around a big need of the youth organizations working at a national level - which is to make their work effective and to provide space for real and meaningful participation. It is important to address issues such as democratic participation in youth organizations on national level before being able to increase quality of the work in the youth sector. CID as the applicant is also setting up a national level network for youth clubs aiming to enhance its work in branches around the country. The same is happening with the partners in their countries. So the project's main aim is to strengthen the capacity and stainability of youth organizations by developing the competencies of their democratic leadership and management structures for national level operations. Objectives of the project are the following: - To develop a common understanding of the concepts related to democratic leadership in national level youth organizations such as: democracy, participation and leadership, civil society, human rights and citizenship - To raise participants’ awareness and provide space to reflect upon the value of youth organizations/structures - their role and impact as democratic leaders within society - To develop the participants’ ability to relate the work of their organizations with youth policy and provide them with up-to-date research (study) on national level youth organizations management - To develop participants’ understanding and knowledge of various forms of youth participation through youth organisations and their applicability for the management of national level youth organizations - To define and further develop leadership and civic competencies as well as relevant management skills (conflict management, advocacy, motivation, shared leadership, decision making, empowerment, strategic planning, resource management) - To support participants in analyzing and further developing their organization internal processes and mechanisms in order to strengthen their work as national level youth organizations Final outcomes of the project apart of the internal change in youth organizations work, includes a publication of the survey and a youth work publication on National Level Youth Organizing with the focus on Organizational Management.