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The Belgrade Open School (BOS) with the support of the Kingdom of Sweden is implementing the project "Advancing Media and Youth CSOs for Prosperous Democratic Development of Serbia - MAY4DD" which aims to encourage partnerships between the media and youth organizations to democratize society and respect the rule of law and human rights on a local level. The project was launched in June 2021 and will last until May 31, 2025. 


Unstable democracy in the Republic of Serbia directly affects the lack of transparency, independence and pluralism of the media, investigative journalism, civic activism and the commitment of young people to solving social and political issues.

The project supported 10 youth CSOs and 10 media, which jointly implement their 10 partnership projects and initiatives.  

Through financial and mentoring support, as well as the capacity building program of 20 partners annually, BOS will strive to strengthen the media, youth sector and youth and actively contribute to the democratic values of the rule of law and human rights, especially in their local communities. 

The focus groups of this project face a number of challenges, and while local media lack new fact-checking tools and evidence-based investigative journalism that could prevent fake news and improve media literacy, young people face very little involvement in decision-making processes and reduced youth activism. 

In addition, the content placed in the media is not adapted to young people, which we will try to bridge with this program through continuous work with youth associations and a focus on partnership projects and initiatives. 

The overall goal of the Program is to contribute to the strengthening democratic practices, rule of law and human rights standards and values in Serbia, grounded in independent media reporting and youth CSOs’ activism. 

The specific objectives of the Program are: 

  1. To facilitate sustainable partnerships between media and youth CSOs in addressing issues of democratization, human rights and rule of law in local context; 

  1. To improve young citizens’ engagement in community mobilization for pursuing necessary democratic changes; 

  1. To advance quality and standards of investigative reporting, media information literacy and fighting against fake news in Serbia. 

The project "Advancing Media and Youth CSOs for Prosperous Democratic Development of Serbia" will consist of the following units: 

Program activity 1: Financial Support to Media and Youth CSOs 

Financial and mentoring support will be provided for a total of 10 projects annually in four cycles, and each project will be developed and implemented by one youth CSO and one media organization, so that there will be at least 20 program beneficiaries each year. 

Program activity 2: Capacity Building Hub 

In order to improve the capacities of selected CSOs and media and ensure the sustainability of the project, this activity will be implemented in several methodologically different but complementary sub-activities. The capacity building and networking program will be organized at three levels. The first level includes group trainings in accordance with the needs of all program partners. The second level of training includes workshops tailored to the specific needs of youth CSOs and the media, while the third level will provide space for individual training that will allow partners to focus on the development of the organization, as well as its short-term and long-term goals. 

Program activity 3: Youth Investigative Journalism 2.0 

The Academy of Investigative Journalism will be organized in the form of a three-month educational program with the aim of providing young journalists with various trainings, mentoring support and networking with experienced journalists. The Academy will provide young investigative journalists with the necessary knowledge, skills and tools to be able to create media products independently, but with the mentorship of experienced colleagues and financial support.  

This four-year program represents a synergy between the media, youth organizations and young people working on the same mission of further democratization of Serbian society. The partnership between the media and youth CSOs will be based on common values and ideas, as well as project proposals that they will submit in partnership, while maintaining a special corpus of activities. 

You can find more about the project on the website mingl.rs.

logo horecaccess project

Youth with disabilities face different barriers on daily basis when using services such as visits to cafes, restaurants and hotel accommodation. On the other hand, youth from the general population (15-18 years old) are looking for seasonal jobs during the summer season and in most cases they are engaged in spas and tourist resorts. Employers are more willing to hire youth who are still in process of education because they pay less taxes. However, those youth who are engaged in the HORECA industry during the summer months do not have induction on the job training and they are not trained to provide adequate informations and support to persons with disabilities.

The project HORECACCESS deals with the development of vocational training intended for seasonal workers engaged during the summer months in the HORECA sector. The training is conducted in order to empower the employees to make their services available to the HORECA sector accessible to person with disabilities as well as to persons who are facing some kind of barrier (old people, people with mobility impairments, pregnant women, etc.).

The project contributes to the empowerment of youth people engaged in HORECA industry in providing reliable and affordable services to people with disabilities. A special segment is dedicated to raising awareness about this population, situations that staff in the HORECA sector can encounter when providing services to customers with disabilities, as well as potential solutions and strategies for effective support in order to bridge or mitigate barriers in these situations.

As one of the main products of this project will be an Android application with the aim of providing affordable and reliable services to person with disabilities in the HORECA sector, BOS will endeavor to create educational materials such as the Handbook for in-house youth workers on conducting supervision of the non-formal learning process with summer working youth employees.

The project is coordinated by the University "St. Kliment Ohridski" from Sofia (Bulgaria), while the partners are: Belgrade Open School (Serbia), OAED - European education, Consulting Services and Coaching Services Istanbul (Turkey), EcologiKM Ltd, Brestovitza (Bulgaria) and Horeca Partners, Antwerp (Belgium).

The project is supported within the Erasmus + Program of Strategic Partnership for the Development of Innovation in Vocational Education and Training. Project activities are carried out in the period from 1.11.2018. to 28.02.2021.

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