YOUTH HUB WESTERN BALKANS AND TURKEY NETWORK – CALL FOR NEW NETWORK MEMBERS
Capacity Building Program and Financial Support
in the frame of WB&T for EmploYouth project

I- DESCRIPTION OF THE NETWORK

Apart from being candidates for the EU membership, a low percentage of youth involvement in important decision-making processes in the community and the fact that the current public policies affecting youth are not directed at encouraging their involvement, are in common for Western Balkans and Turkey. Therefore, Youth Hub Western Balkan and Turkey Network (YBHWBT) was initially founded in 2016 in order to ensure greater involvement of young people in Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey. Today, the YHWBT network brings together 20 youth organizations engaged in policy monitoring and research-based advocacy of solutions for political, economic, and social inclusion of youth, with a special focus on youth employment. The YHWBT Network is coordinated by five youth organizations: Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation (Serbia), Prima Association (Montenegro), Youth Alliance – Krusevo (North Macedonia), Partners Albania for Change and Development (Albania), and Community Volunteers Foundation (Turkey), while is supported by the European Commission, as part of its efforts towards the continuous upgrading of the relationship of public authorities with the youth.

Network members have developed the Youth Participation Index (YPI) – a unique method for measuring the level of opportunity of young people to be involved in decision – making process which provides a comparative analysis of data for the Western Balkan countries and Turkey. The YPI shows that a significant discrepancy exists between the current situation in all the countries compared to the European values or targeted figures by Europe 2020 Strategy. Based on the YPI score, the monitoring reports become a guide for evidence-based policy recommendations and advocacy initiatives.

According to the findings, the Index indicates that one of the biggest challenges in all countries is related to the economic dimension, the issue of employment of young people. On the other hand, the analysis indicates that data on young people from vulnerable groups are being insufficiently and inconsistently collected, which additionally aggravates their position on the labor market, and that most of these countries have high NEET youth rates – a young person who is “Not in Education, Employment, or Training”. Accordingly, in next 4 years the Network will focus on the issue of employment of young people coming from vulnerable groups in the new project.

The aim of the WB&T for EmploYouth project is to contribute to strengthened regional collaboration, participatory democracies, and the EU approximation process in Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey in the area of youth employment with a focus on:

• To create informed and constituency-based solutions for improved youth employment policies;
• To increase the capacity of CSOs to pilot innovative solutions for improved employment of NEET youth;
• To increase engagement and influence of CSOs in raising public awareness on youth employment.).

II- CALL FOR THE NEW NETWORK MEMBERS – CAPACITY BUILDING, AND FINANCIAL & MENTORING SUPPORT FOR CSOS
We invite small and medium-sized organizations involved in improving the position of young people from vulnerable categories at the local level to join the work and future develop the Youth Hub Western Balkans and Turkey Network.
The Network will target and directly engage 100 local, grassroots CSOs in Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey, providing them with training on operational management and the EU context and will pass on their know-how regarding promotion and piloting of youth-suited business and employment models. During the second phase of the program, 50 of these grassroots CSOs will receive financial and mentoring support for their own projects.
The total duration of the Capacity Building and Financial Support Programme is 18 months (6 months for the training and mentoring support and 12 months of financial support). CSOs will be required to submit applications for a timeline of 12 months.

The capacity building and sub granting program will be implemented through 4 main steps:

Step 1: Selection of 100 local organizations to participate in the Capacity Building Program
During the first selection process, 100 local organizations will be selected from Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey (20 organizations in each country). The capacity-building training delivered to CSOs in the first six months will build and strengthen capacities for the programmatic and administrative requirements of the program, and thus help CSOs to create innovative employment solutions for youth from vulnerable groups. The program is intended for:

1. Small size organizations, foundations, or associations – organizations with an annual turnover of less than 15,000 euro
2. Medium size organizations, foundations, or associations – organizations with an annual turnover higher than 15.000 euro

Actual network members who used the capacity-building support program in the previous cycle are not eligible to apply to this program.

Step 2: Capacity Building Program
The training program will contribute to the development and strengthening of the CSO’s capacities to prepare, develop, and present innovative employment solutions for youth from vulnerable groups (NEET youth). The Capacity Building Program will be organized during September – November 2021, aiming to improve their knowledge, technical and management skills necessary for piloting innovative models for youth employment.

Each of the members of the YHWBT Network will organize an intensive 4-days training program at the local level covering the following topics:
(1) Promotion and piloting of models of employment and business models that the NEET youth could engage, including topics such as working with local businesses, digital skills and tools for youth employment, etc;
(2) project and financial management,
(3) EU-approximation context,
(4) awareness-raising and visibility of EU-funded actions

Following the training program, organizations will be invited to develop their project ideas and apply for financial support.

Step 3: Call for project proposal, award of grants, Contract signature
The call for financial and mentoring support of projects will be restricted and launched within the group of 100 CSOs (selected in STEP 1). At least 50 CSOs out of 100 CSOs participating in the Capacity Building Program will be selected by a Selection Committee for financial and mentoring support of their projects aimed at empowering local NEET youth and piloting innovative employment solutions.

Size of Sub-Grant: Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
-LOT 1: Maximum amount: EUR 5,000 – CSOs with annual turnover less than 15,000 EUR.
-LOT 2 Maximum amount: EUR 10,000 – CSOs with annual turnover higher than 15,000 EUR.

After approval of the project and training component, grants will be awarded in March 2022. Contract signature and the start of the work plan implementation is planned from March 2022. The implementation should end in March 2023. The grant will award at least 50 grants in total, 10 grants in each country (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey). The maximum duration of the awarded grant is 12 months.

Step 4: Implementation of local project and mentoring support
During the one-year projects, aside from the financial support, subgranting CSOs will also receive mentoring support in operational and financial management, and in implementation of their projects, especially for NEET youth training and for designing and implementing local awareness-raising activities. The mentoring support will include regular monthly mentoring sessions of the youth CSOs representatives with the national hubs and annual network meetings at the national level in the course of development of their innovative solutions and in the course of its implementation.
The 50 CSOs, beneficiaries of the Capacity Building and Financial Support scheme, will become members of the YHWBT network and will be included in its activities as: participate in yearly consultative debates preceding the formulation of the NEET youth-related policy proposals; in public outreach events, and they will take part in the training of local media and all events to be implemented at the local and regional level.

III- APLICATION PROCEDURE

• The call is opened to all interested CSOs operating in local communities in the field of youth or socio-economic issues;
• Interested candidates are invited to apply by completing the following application form;
• The deadline for the submission of the applications is September 15th, 2021;
• Questions may be sent by e-mail no later than the 5th of September 2021 to the national coordinators.

The selection of applicants will be competitive and based on the information provided in the application form.