Three Montenegrin non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that deal with youth will be selected as members of the Network of Youth Funds for the Western Balkans and Turkey, and will receive mentoring and financial support in order to improve youth policies.
NGO Prima, which is one of the founders of the Network of Youth Funds, organized today an info session for representatives of interested organizations regarding the call for new members of the network.
The executive director of the NGO Prima, Aida Perović Ivanović, said that in each of the five countries where the project is implemented - Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania and Turkey, three organizations will be selected that deal with issues of importance to young people. youth participation and youth policies.
According to her, during the project, which will last 18 months, the selected organizations will receive mentoring support for a period of six months.
"They will go through five trainings in Montenegro. They will also have a meeting every month at the national level, where we will monitor youth policies, and they will have the opportunity to announce proposals on how to implement them as best as possible in the coming period," said Perović. Ivanovic.
After that, as she added, for 18 months, the NGO team will be provided with an administrative grant so that they can implement those youth policies as efficiently as possible.
Today's info session was attended by representatives of 15 NGOs and, according to Perović Ivanović, the criteria defined which organizations "come into consideration".
"These are small and medium-sized organizations, which according to the statute and their activities can prove that they deal with young people and youth policies, that their annual turnover is between ten and 60 thousand EUR and that they are registered and active at least 12 months before the application deadline ", explained Perović Ivanović.
She said that the deadline for submitting applications is January 31, and on February 28, it will be announced which three organizations are the winners of the grants.
Aleksandra Gligorović, a researcher on the project Network of Youth Funds for the Western Balkans and Turkey, said that the process that the selected organizations should go through is comprehensive, explaining that it was created in a way to provide them with additional capacity building.
"Organizations should propose their work plan for those 12 months in which fields of public policy concerning youth they will work on. When they are elected, there will be negotiations and they will be accompanied by additional training, so that for six months NGOs will undergo specific modules that concern the strategic planning of organizations, organizational management", stated Gligorović.
In addition, as she explained, the organizations will undergo special training in research in the field of youth and the creation of public policies that are based on data and evidence.
"Our idea is that, when these organizations, 15 of them in total, undergo training and receive grants, we will carry out public advocacy activities together with them," Gligovorić pointed out.
She believes that it is very important that the organizations from the countries where the project is implemented become familiar with the system of the Network of Youth Funds that exists in Serbia and Turkey.
As she stated, it is a system in which municipalities and institutions support the development of youth funds for young people.
"During the program, a study visit will be organized during which the selected organizations will be able to see how it works, how the budgets are filled and the money is distributed from them. The idea of the youth funds is that the money collected is further allocated to young people and youth organizations to implement activities", explained Gligorović.
She said that the budget covers 89 percent of the costs, and that 11 percent will have to be borne by the organization itself.
"The total budget for all five countries is about 210 thousand EUR, including training costs, and about 188 thousand will be distributed for the grants themselves," said Gligorović.
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