Fully Funded Youth Exchange in Bosnia and Herzegovina

“Youth, Business, Better” (YBB) is a project involving a total of 8 NGOs of which 3 based in the Western Balkans (Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Albania) and 5 in Europe (Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, Slovakia, FYROM).

YBB will develop an integrated approach for youth organizations in partner countries to tackle the issues of unemployment, social and economic marginalization of rural youth.

In Europe and West Balkans, high youth unemployment rates, sustained youth population drain to urban centres, overall economic marginalization are compounded by impaired access to education, socialization and participation opportunities in a complex relationship of co-determination.

The simultaneous operation of the factors outlined above is both a triggering and perpetuating factor in a self-feeding dynamic of exclusion whose unhindered development is due to hamper the socioeconomic sustainability of rural communities and the personal development of youngsters.

A comprehensive and sustainable approach to youth employability in rural areas should focus on strengthening the role of youth organization as key bridgeheads capable of connecting youth empowerment, active citizenship and local development through an NFE based educational approach targeted at providing young people with skills to be active drivers of positive change.

Developing entrepreneurial skills and competences in young people represents a major avenue towards the enhancement of self-employability, active participation and social inclusion of youngsters as well as a key determinant in eliciting a youth driven-bottom up process of development capable of making the most of the wide array of assets (natural, cultural, traditional) characterizing rural areas across Europe and Western Balkan countries.

YBB provides a comprehensive approach to tackle the issue of youth unemployment in rural areas by means of sharing and developing knowledge, best practices and NFE tools fostering the understanding and technical competences of locally-engaged youth operators in supporting empowerment and employability of young people in rural areas through conveying skills and competences of entrepreneurship.

The Consortium is composed of experienced youth organizations with a long-standing involvement in support of disadvantaged youth categories in rural areas by means of NFE.

In the frame of YBB, partners will share, assess and develop knowledge, best practices and NFE tools to be tested and further developed in a TC involving youth/social workers from each organization. The methodologies developed in project TC will be tested in a piloting phase conducted in all partner countries with the participation of local youth operators. Partners will test the educational outcomes achieved in the first phase of the project through a specific YE involving youngsters from rural areas.