Youth unemployment is one of today’s challenges facing the European continent. In wider Europe, the picture of youth unemployment is very diverse and the issue is not only limited to the concerns of national authorities, but also is dominantly present in European discourses vis-à-vis European institutions as well as youth associations and organisations. In the countries of former socialist block, the employability of young people has been influenced severely by a rather rapid shift of the structure of economy from socialist system to capitalism, very often leaving the young people unaware of how to transfer from the large-scale, highly industrial jobs to small scale, and often self-managed jobs in service sector or small scale production based on the assets of own community.Therefore, the consortium wishes to address the economic shift in transformative democracies through boosting creativity and entrepreneurship thinking among young people, enabling them to become an economically active part of the local communities, which is possible to facilitate youth work and non-formal learning as instruments to develop the creative and innovative potential as well as entrepreneurial skills of young people. As a window of opportunity for engaging young people in entrepreneurial activity at the same time activity contributing to the development of own communities and building up on the strength and interests of young people the consortium composed of partners from Armenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia and Ukraine sees the engagement of young people tourism sector, as one of the most rapidly development fields of economy in the countries of project partners. We acknowledge that having limited natural resources, developing human capital and infrastructure for tourism can be an effective instrument for sustainable development for these countries.The aim of “Cities of YOUth: increasing the role of young people in the development of tourism infrastructure” project is to enhance the role and involvement of young people in the build-up of their communities through actively engaging them in the development of tourism infrastructures.To achieve the aim we have identified two specific objectives: • To strengthen the capacity of youth workers in order to support young people to increase their entrepreneurial role and active community engagement through a trainingcourse, modules for coaching, a study visit.• To develop competences and self-esteem of young people to become active stakeholders in the economic development of their communities through 2 exchanges for 50 young people, long-term coaching, business consultancy and implementing business ideas. In the scope of the proposed project we would like to tackle two main aspects of tourism:1. Hospitality service (engaging young people and their households in hosting tourists and visitors) and2. Tour-guiding (creating youth-friendly routs for on foot and by bike trails, organizing tours and developing maps)
To support the aim of the project and serve basis for project activities, 2 objectives were set forward: -Strengthening the capacity of youth workers in order to support young people to increase their entrepreneurial role and active community engagement. -Developing competences and self-esteem of young people to become active stakeholders in the economic development of their communities.
Existing discrepancies in the labour market and lack of job placements have left young people and youth organizations to input innovative tools to address youth unemployment and come up with long-term solutions. In this context, taking into account tourism being one of the rapidly developing fields in the countries of the project partners, the focus of the project was on engaging young people in the tourism sector to respond to the need of employment and the development of the local communities.
<< Background >> Existing discrepancies in the labour market and lack of job placements have left young people and youth organizations to input innovative tools to address youth unemployment and come up with long-term solutions. In this context, taking into account tourism being one of the rapidly developing fields in the countries of the project partners, the focus of the project was on engaging young people in the tourism sector to respond to the need of employment and the development of the local communities. << Objectives >> To support the aim of the project and serve basis for project activities, 2 objectives were set forward: -Strengthening the capacity of youth workers in order to support young people to increase their entrepreneurial role and active community engagement. -Developing competences and self-esteem of young people to become active stakeholders in the economic development of their communities. << Implementation >> The project is a result of cooperation between youth-driven and youth-focused civil society organisations from EU and Eastern Partnership countries. Building up on the previous experiences of successful cooperation between the involved partners at different dimensions, this project helped to bridge the gaps in youth work practices of the involved partners and form a full cycle of support mechanisms for young people and youth workers through capacity building and mobility activities. << Results >> The project has resulted in achieving the main goal of the project which is to enhance the role and involvement of young people in the build-up of their communities through actively engaging them in the development of tourism infrastructures. In the result of long-term capacity building activities and mobilities, the project has reported success in reaching its original target and beyond which is duly demonstrated at the project website at www.citiesofyouth.com.