High unemployment among young people is a serious problem in rural areas. Rural youth, unable to find employment in their home districts, often decide to emigrate to towns. In order to counteract this, FDPA started the project titled Youth Support Centers (YSC). Its goal is to increase the chances of rural unemployed youth to find a job or start their own business.
The activities at Youth Support Centre aim at providing support to the young unemployed (aged 18-30) living in rural areas and help them find jobs or start their own businesses. The whole project is designed as a framework which, on the one hand, ensures the best possible services adjustment in line with individual needs of every young person and, on the other hand, it presents the model that can be replicated in many diverse conditions. Proposed action scheme can be modified depending on the local labour market requirements and the situation in region as well as the identified capabilities and needs of the beneficiary.
Youth Support Centres offer the following services
1. to the young persons intending to set up their own business:
- Training courses to present basic information on how to set up and run own small business, how to prepare business plan, information on relevant law provisions, those in respect of taxes and social insurance in the SME sector.
- Individual advice on management, finance, law, taxes and social insurance for small and medium enterprises.
- Vocational training courses – if a candidate the employer wants to hire does not have sufficient vocational training or lacks relevant qualifications, CWM is ready to co-finance the necessary vocational or qualifications upgrading training course.
- Job placements – if the young candidate does not have enough practical experience, CWM reimburses the entrepreneur the cost of 3-month payroll amounting to minimum remuneration.
The YSC Centres which have been opened so far:
- Youth Support Centre in Barlinek (zachodniopomorskie voivodship) - financed by the UNIDEA Foundation
- Youth Support Centre in Nowy Sącz (małopolskie voivodship) - co-financed by the European Union's Phare 2002 Programme - Active forms of counteracting unemployment "Employment growth promotion among young people" implemented under PARP supervision.
- Youth Support Centre Podlasie (mazowieckie and podlaskie voivodships) - financed by the UNIDEA Foundation
- Interregional Project on Rural Development and Microloans in Poland and Slovakia - financed by the UNIDEA Foundation. The Project was implemented in the partnership with the Slovak NGO - VOKA