What activities should a youth center offer, what are its benefits, what kind of center young people imagine to have and what are their favorite activities?
These are some of the questions that mobilizer Sofija Stojanovska has been seeking answers to in recent months, organizing workshops in several municipalities across the country, through her initiative “What should we do to make youth centers a reality”, which is part of the “Support to Electoral Reforms” project.
At the online public discussion, which took place today and in which attend representatives of municipalities and officials from existing youth centers and those who are in the process of formation, Sofia shared the collected opinions of young people in some municipalities, justified the need of young people to establish youth centers and presented a report on how young people imagine the perfect youth center.
“Young people want and should have a center in their municipalities” is the overall conclusion of the participants, who developed an interactive discussion and justified the need to establish such centers, which will mobilize young people in one place.
Young people want to play sports and express themselves creatively is the conclusion of the discussion, and a great example of that is the Youth Center in Kavadarci, which actively includes over 250 and even more indirectly involved young people.
In this center, where young people spend their free time, foreign language courses have been organized so far, music workshops in which young people create songs on the topic of gender equality and songs against hate speech, a drama club has been established as well…
In the other municipalities, where Sofia organized workshops such as: Veles, Kumanovo, Bitola and Valandovo, the establishment of centers is in process, in some it has been stopped or has not started at all.
The positive practice of this initiative shows that the need for such centers is a necessity for every municipality in the country, and according to the Law on Youth Participation and Youth Policies, municipalities are obliged to strengthen youth participation in policy-making processes, in order to encourage volunteering and youth activism, which will contribute to the personal, professional and social development of young people.
At the end, a visual presentation was made of how young people imagine their youth center, which should have an office, where they can get answers to all questions and needs, indoor and outdoor space, where all activities will be held, such as conferences, forums, workshops, cinema screenings, music events, and finally, all unanimously emphasized that in these centers it is necessary to create conditions for people with disabilities.
