The Project "YOU4EU - Citizen Participation 2.0" was implemented by Belgrade Open School in collaboration with Access Info Europe (Spain), Gong (Croatia), Institute Alternative (Montenegro) and PiNA (Slovenia) from 1 September 2018 to 29 February 2020 and with the support of the European Union within the Europe for Citizens Programme.

Young people from Western Balkans countries face numerous challenges in finding good career opportunities for their mobility. The WEB4YES Regional Initiative seeks to defy these statistics and help create better conditions for all young people by empowering civil society organizations to participate in decision-making processes and advocacy activities regarding youth employment policies.

How far are we from the society in which the work of public authorities is transparent, the decision-making process inclusive, and citizens informed and active in protecting their rights - this was discussed at the international conference "Citizen participation matters - changes we need". The conference was held on 12 December 2019 in Belgrade and gathered experts in the field of citizen participation and representatives of civic initiatives from Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain and Serbia.

Popular places for youth gatherings are public squares, cafes, restaurants, clubs and various places that are rich in cultural amenities such as cinemas, theaters. However, do we sometimes wonder if ALL young people have access to youth content. Access to services, training staff to provide the same quality of service to all guests, regardless of the type of support they require, whether they are handicapped, pregnant women, the elderly or a person with a unique diet, is addressed by the HORECACCESS project with which the partner and Belgrade Open School.

Even though internships in Serbia are widely spread, our legal framework does not recognize a legal and contractual obligation between an intern and employer. Whereat elements of quality internships contain contractual relationship, mentorship, some kind of financial motivation, a good internship is, like a unicorn, impossible to find.

When it comes to mentoring, there are many areas and situations in which we can apply it . We can talk about peer mentoring, mentoring at companies or educational institutions. However, what about  sport and mentoring when it comes to empowering young people with disabilities? We tried to find answers of these questions during a study visit to Florence as part of the VM - PRO - Validation of Youth Mentoring project, which also strives to enable young people with disabilities to identify their competencies and interests to their direct their personal development and complete their education.

Activities for improving career guidance in companies were the topic of the first meeting of partners within the project “CONNECT! Connecting Career Counselling and Human Resource Development in Enterprises for Higher Education and Training in Practice”. The meeting was held in Germany, on 5th and 6th of November 2019, and apart of Belgrade Open School, the representatives of universities and organizations from Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Lithuania and Greece participated. The project coordinator is University of Applied Labour Studies from Germany.

Last month, under the initiative of Belgrade Open School, individual consultative meetings were held with representatives of trade unions, Labour and Education ministries, American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia, Serbian Association of Employers, representatives of “Education to Employment” programme.

Besides the common geopolitical position, the Western Balkan countries have not so recent statistics. They rank first in Europe in terms of youth unemployment. Improving employability and working to empower young people for a dynamic labor market is a common goal that brings together 18 civil society organizations from Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, implementing projects supported under the VEB4IES grant scheme.

The international conference "Technology for Transparency and Citizen Participation" was held on Friday, September 27th at the Impact Hub in Zagreb. The conference was organized within the project "YOU4EU - Citizen Participation 2.0", which is implemented by Belgrade Open School in cooperation with partners from Montenegro (Institute Alternative), Croatia (Gong), Slovenia (PiNA) and Spain (Access Info Europe) with the support of European Union within the Europe for Citizens Program.

How can we help students to make career decisions based on authentic and relevant information? What competencies are necessary for career practitioners to successfully provide career guidance and counseling services? How we can prepare students for a job or internship interview? These are just some of the topics we addressed during the two-day training "One step further towards comprehensive and quality services of career guidance and counseling", held on September 19-20 in Belgrade.

Mentoring. Somewhere certified, somewhere formalized by a clear methodology, and left somewhere at the level of an informal relationship between mentors and mentees. Whether a mentoring program or action is being implemented in Serbia, Turkey, Italy or another country, it is common for all of them that mentoring, if well-aimed, can produce good results. In the framework of the VM-pro project: validation of youth mentoring, mentoring has proven to be an excellent mechanism in the field of preventing early school leaving, supporting the inclusion of young people (and vulnerable groups) in the labor market, as well as supporting personal and career development through mentoring. so does the mentor.

On September 6, 2019, Belgrade Open School organised a Grant Award Ceremony for 18 small scale civil society organisations from the Western Balkans. CSOs have been awarded with the financial support from European Union.

The evaluation of the ideas for the best digital solution which encourages citizen engagement and enables better communication of citizens and decision-makers has been completed within the Contest Citizen Participation 2.0 which was organised within the Project „YOU4EU – Citizen Participation 2.0“.

  Leisure opens opportunities for building inclusive youth communities. How can this be achieved? Experience and knowledge from Bulgaria, Austria, Belgium and Serbia was shared at the final meeting of partners in the period from 2-3. July 2019, while inclusive messages and examples of good practice of actively involving young people with disabilities in leisure activities were shared with over 160 participants and media during a one-day conference in Plovdiv held on 5 July 2019.

Numerous research studies have shown that leisure activities have a significant role in physical health and well-being of individuals, and thus they have been recognized as one of the significant instruments for support of social inclusion. Aiming to improve quality and possibilities for inclusion of all young people in leisure activities, Belgrade Open School has carried out two one-day training courses on the topic “How to organize inclusive leisure activities for all young people” in Belgrade and in Niš, on 27th and 29th 2019.

How to make accessible services to persons with disabilities? How is it possible to provide support services in the HORECA (Hotels, Restaurants and Caffees) sector for people with disabilities? How to empower horeca staff to provide quality services to guests with disabilities? These are just some of the issues that were discussed during the two-day meeting within the HORECACCESS project - accessibility of services in the HORECA sector. 

That school activities can at the same time encourage creativity and innovation of students while actively contributing to identifying their own competencies and interests related to further education, showed the jubilee fifth edition of the Fair of Schools Teams for Career Guidance and Counseling held at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce on the 27th of May 2019. 

From 16 to 23 of May info sessions dedicated to the WeB4YES open call was held in Belgrade, Nis and Novi Sad. Info sessions gathered representatives of small local organizations dealing with issues of youth employment and employability.

You have an idea for a new app or platform which can enable better communication and cooperation of citizens in addressing the problems of their communities?