InclusiON NOW! Development of Inclusive Youth Work in the Eastern Partnership countries

Equality, inclusion and diversity are core values of youth work in Europe. Many vulnerable young people in the Eastern Partnership countries have limited access to the four major aspects of inclusion: education, healthcare, employment and civic participation. The youth inclusion gaps in the Eastern Partnership countries are covering a broad spectrum of dimensions, from gender rights to the rights of people with disabilities.

Given this context, a European consortium of youth organizations implements a project – “InclusiON NOW! Development of Inclusive Youth Work in the Eastern Partnership countries”.

We aim to offer an opportunity for a professional development to a group of youth professionals in the Eastern Partnership countries who work in the area of youth inclusion. Additionally, we are aiming at incorporating the issue of inclusion of young people to the advocacy goals of the Working Group 4 of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum and advocate for more youth inclusion both at the national and European levels.

The objectives of the project are the following:

• Sharing experiences and best practices on increasing inclusiveness of youth work provided to the disadvantaged young people in the Eastern Partnership countries.
• Equipping young professionals from the Eastern Partnership countries with practical tools and methods to use in their everyday work with disadvantaged young people.
• Creating a network of partners in the EU and the Eastern Partnership who jointly develop quality youth work measures to support inclusion of disadvantaged young people
• Mapping good practices, training activities, tools and methodologies, which promote youth inclusion and disseminating them among the members of the Working Group 4 of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum and beyond
• Incorporating the issue of inclusion of young people under the risk of marginalization in the advocacy goals of the Working Group 4 of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum
• Disseminating and mainstreaming the results, recommendations and the position paper elaborated within the project among the relevant EU institutions and the national governments in the Eastern Partnership countries.

Through the project, we are planning to implement the following activities:

Activity 1: Development of a tailor-made training module on Youth Inclusion in the Eastern Partnership countries for Youth Workers and Youth Educators
Activity 2: InclusiON NOW! Training for Youth Workers and Youth Educators in the Eastern Partnership countries (based on the training module)
Activity 3: Study Visit to Fryshuset Youth Center in Sweden
Activity 4: Development of a package of Recommendations
Activity 5: Advocacy of the recommendations and objectives of the EaP CSF among national and European stakeholders

The project is implemented by Armenian Progressive Youth NGO (Armenia) in cooperation with the Belarusian students’ association (Belarus), the Local Democracy Agency (Georgia), the Foundation for Advancement (Moldova), the Youth organization “STAN” (Ukraine), IZ – Association for the Promotion of Diversity, Dialogue and Education (Austria), AEGEE-Europe (Belgium) and Fryshuset Foundation (Sweden).

The project benefits from support through the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum Re-granting Scheme (FSTP) and is funded by the European Union as part of its support to civil society in the region.