As part of the “Youth for Air” project, which was implemented by the Youth Education Forum (YEF) in partnership with the UNICEF Office in Skopje, in the period December 2022 – March 2023, a series of theoretical and practical trainings were held with the aim of familiarize the participants of the program with air pollutants, the dangers of neglecting the problems and the responsible institutions. At the same time, the participants had the opportunity to participate in the process of creating digital content and messages for advocacy and raising awareness of air quality.
After participating in the trainings, the young people, with the support of experienced mentors, made written requests (petitions) to policy makers for improving air quality and held meetings with several policy makers where they discussed air quality and submitted requests.
Through the project “Quality educational policies and opportunities for young people” financed by the Open Society Foundation – Macedonia, the Youth Education Forum during 2021 addresses the inequalities that exist between young people from urban and rural areas through analyzes and research, current information through journalistic texts, stories and announcements, participation in working groups to improve policies that affect young people, as well as initiating activities for formal and informal learning for all young people with the help of a digital platform.
The activities and approaches implemented to achieve the goals of the project are:
current information of young people through professional journalistic texts, stories and announcements, but also through content created by young people for young people that will convey current social developments.
The project aims to improve inter-ethnic integration by enabling positive interactions between ethnically diverse youth at the school and community level and improving the content, skills and behaviors of civic education and volunteering practices of youth from all primary and secondary schools and municipalities.
These activities are implemented with all primary and secondary schools, as well as municipalities in the territory of the state. The activities are also achieved through two main objectives:
Strengthening inter-ethnic cohesion in the educational system – Through constant cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science, key educational institutions and municipalities, the project creates opportunities for interaction between schools from different communities and the creation of better ethnic cohesion between young people.
Strengthening democratic culture and civic behavior among young people – In partnership with the Ministry of Education and Science, the project supports changes in the content of civic education and introduces methods to promote the active involvement of students in schools and decision-making processes for the community.
The “Student Perception of Discrimination” project, implemented by the Youth Education Forum (YOF), targets the four largest universities in the country, i.e. “St. Cyril and Methodius” University – Skopje, “Goce Delchev” University – Shtip, “St. Kliment Ohridski” – Bitola, as well as the State University in Tetovo.
The main goal of this project is to actualize and reduce discrimination in higher education, by creating research on the perception of discrimination at the four universities by students, by implementing a campaign to actualize the phenomenon of discrimination present in higher education, creating an educational a module on combating discrimination and raising the level of student rights intended for student ombudsmen at colleges and universities, and finally and most importantly, creating or changing policy proposals to promote equality and reduce discrimination at colleges and universities.
The project is implemented by YEF and supported by the Foundation for Democracy of Westminster, whose goal is to encourage the civic participation of young people primarily against the institutions as well as to strengthen their democratic competences and capacities. The project is implemented through several main activities, that is:
The youth clubs are established in three cities (Skopje, Tetovo and Kumanovo) and in 5 different schools – SUGS “Orce Nikolov”, SUGS “Zef Ljush – Marku”, DUCOR “Partenija Zografski”, SOU “Pero Nakov” and SSOU “Mosha Pijade”. “. The clubs had weekly meetings where 10 lectures were held following a predetermined curriculum in the following areas: Democracy and Human Rights, Youth Organizations and Structures, Youth Institutions and Policies, Activism and Participation and Advocacy and Action.
One of the activities in the project is the Student Orientation, which is a regular practice in a large number of world universities, but it is not yet sufficiently represented in our country. As part of the project, four student orientations were held. At the student orientations, students have the opportunity to learn about their rights and obligations, the way of studying, the student organization and other useful information related to the faculty and the university.
The youth actions represent the final part of the lectures of the youth clubs, where the students in the clubs will be able to perform an action in their school or community, cooperating with the competent institution, with the aim of improving the conditions within the school and the community.
In the project “Youth packages and engagement through campaigns”, financed by the Open Society Foundation – Macedonia, the Youth Education Forum is included through the cooperation between Equalis, Hera and Psychotherapika, non-governmental organizations focused on informal education of young people on various topics, including mental health and comprehensive sexual education.
The project includes production of educational videos by all involved organizations. Youth Education Forum videos focus on the topics of critical thinking, media literacy, and argumentative expression. The videos were made during December 2020, and during 2021 Masterclasses divided into 4 youth packages will be held. At each masterclass, through the videos, the participants are educated about what critical thinking is, how it can be used in everyday life and what are the characteristics of a successful speech. The most active participants of the master classes got the opportunity to be involved in the creation of youth campaigns, which will be led by each organization.
The Youth Educational Forum with the support of the US Embassy implements the project “Youth Entrepreneurial Skills”. The project aims to improve the position of young people in society and make them active citizens, while fighting against one of the key reasons for the emigration of young people – unemployment.
The project will fill the gap left by formal education for practical skills and applicable knowledge and analyze the effects of current measures to reduce unemployment to contribute to better educational policies at school level.
The project provides the necessary education to improve the chances of employment for 60 high school students from Gostivar, Shtip and Ohrid, as well as the opportunity to acquire practical skills from various companies, domestic and American experts. These goals are achieved by developing own ideas, raising public awareness about youth employment, the quality of education, social inclusion of young people and increased influence on public policies in education and youth employment.
The project “Academic Scholarships for Civil Society” supported by the Open Society Foundation aims to inform and acquaint the general and expert public with the opportunities for academic scholarships offered by the Open Society Foundations.
Through public promotion of the call for scholarships, the project reaches a large number of potential candidates and interested persons who are in doctoral studies or work as faculty within the universities, and would like to continue their academic upgrading.
In addition, former beneficiaries of scholarships (alumni) share some of their experiences with YEF members and take part in thematic youth discussions and help in further dissemination of calls and information about scholarships.
