The YESN activities undertakes so far
1. Informal meetings:
In the first phase of the project the regional/national coordinators were chosen, of which main task was to develop a report on the status of young people on the labor market and used support instruments for young people. For that purpose a series of informal meetings with nongovernmental institutions working in this field (two-three meeting in each country) in each country was organized.
For more detailes see attachemnts below: informal meetings.
2. Country seminars:
The national coordinators were responsible for organizing seminars, to which youth supporting organizations from the entire country were invited. The seminars focused on the presentation of the report on the situation of young people in each country and comparing the situation with other countries - members of the network. In addition the seminars also focused on comparing different instruments, and tools used to support young people. Part of the seminars were assigned for workshopa in which participants could work together on different topics related to the support of youth, obstacles and challenges, and learn about different successful methods of supporting unemployed youth. The seminars allowed the participants not only to learn from each other but also to get better acquainted with the trends in the region, problems and chances faced by the organizations. The seminars were also a good place for presenting the idea of a network and developing the basic principles of the network operations, encouraging participation and involvement in the network activities.
The most important outcome of the seminars was attracting organizations for the participation in the network and the developed scheme of the network and defined fields of activities that the network should be focusing on in the future.
For more detailes see attachment belowe: country seminars.
3. The country reports on youth at the labour market
One of the very important activities within the Phase I of the YESN Project was development of the reports on the status of young people on the labor market and used support instruments for young people.
You can find the reports developed by the experts from three partner countries under the supervision of partner NGOs: FDPA, Poland; VOKA, Slovakia and NROS, The Czech Republic in the Section: Country Reports.
The YESN planned activities:
1. Traveling workshops
In each network member country the national coordinator will be responsible for organizing traveling workshops in the form of a few day study visits. Each member country will organize one study tour for representatives of two other member country NGOs and also for their representatives. The aim of the traveling workshop is to learn about most interesting projects for young people implemented in the country.
At the end of the workshop an information describing visited projects and catalogue of the best solutions - called “the best practices” will be developed. The catalogue of good practices will be included in the handbook on efficient instruments and tools used to support young people on the labor market including catalogue of good practices. The handbook will include also brief description of the visited projects.
2. Reimbursement of costs of participation in international events
An additional instrument supporting the member organizations is the reimbursement of costs of participation in international seminars and conferences that would help to promote forums activities on the international level. It is very important for NGOs to enable them participation in international events to learn and to present themselves as well as to make contacts with other similar NGOs form other countries. According to the NGO sector research in three countries staff training and maintain contacts with other NGOs (especially international) plus learn about other countries experiences and research result is crucial. For an NGO to find funds to cover costs of its representative’s participation in international conferences, especially for smaller organizations, is very often the “mission impossible”.
It is planned that the non governmental organization interested in a conference devoted to young unemployed assistance as well as regional development, would submit an application to the National Coordinator for approval. The application will include the detailed agenda of the conference /seminar, the detailed costs of the participation (plus own input if it is foreseen) including conference fee, transportation, accommodation, and a justification to support the application (why the NGOs believes that conference is important and what would be the positive results of it for the organization).
The organization needs to be the Network members to benefit from the offer.
3. The International Conference
The main goal of the network will be to improve skills and qualifications of the non governmental organizations supporting young people. For this purpose in addition to the traveling workshops organized for the network members at the end of the project an international conference promoting the network would be organized (January 2009 - February 2009).