The high rate of youth unemployment remains a ubiquitous problem in the countries of Western Balkans (WB), amounting to more than double of the EU average. The skills mismatch enhanced by the low adaptability of the education system to the needs of the labor market, slow introduction of entrepreneurial education, and lack of systematic support of young people in entering the job market results in a situation where young people are faced with high risk of poverty, deskilling and social exclusion.It is very common that policy models, including the introduction of active labor market measures as a mechanisms (ALMMs) for reduction of the unemployment, are merely transferred from the from the EU countries, often not taking in consideration the specific conditions that need to be addressed in these countries. The lack of cooperation between government institutions (mandated to implement the ALMMs), youth workers, and young people themselves, results in a situation where effectiveness and impact of the implementation of the ALMMs is lacking. Many of the measures also contain restrictive provisions, which act as disincentives for young people to apply for support. Many young people, have little knowledge on the ALMMs as a supportive mechanism for entering the labor market, and a lack of knowledge on the procedures for participating in the program is prevalent among this group.The project is aimed at strengthening the capacities of youth workers who work with young people under risk of marginalization, particularly suburban youth, for enhancing their employability and therefore, contributing to their social inclusion and improvement of their overall living prospects. The project aims to strengthen to cooperation between youth workers and national employment agencies in creating innovative approaches and adapting ALMMs to the needs of vulnerable young people. The project foresees several capacity-building components that are aimed at strengthening the capacities of youth workers in the field of employment of vulnerable youth and enhancing their participation in ALMM programs. Youth unemployment has been recognized as an important issue and one of the priorities at EU level. The partner organizations’ previous experiences in this field indicate that the problems of unemployment among marginalized/suburban youth are similar, and the solutions are of regional relevance. In many segments, the issues the project aims to address go beyond the local and national level of action. Through a regional approach in providing training for youth workers, and developing mechanisms for brining ALMMs closer to young people under the risk of marginalization, the project aims to contribute to the exchange of positive experiences and practices between the stakeholders, support the development of innovative and adaptable approaches in ALMMs of interest to young people at risk of social exclusion in the countries of the WB.

PROJECT Raising Environmental Sustainability Through Art (REST_ART)Environmental awareness is to understand the fragility of our environment and the importance of its protection. Aesthetic practices that take up political disruption are not simply raising awareness or communicating messages. This is not politics as propaganda. Instead, aesthetic practices operate through a ‘radical uncanniness’ that realigns, disrupts, and reinvents political engagement as material and sensible events (Rancière, 2004 [2000]). An artwork that is visually memorable, seductive, surprising, and shocking can etch itself in people’s minds in a way the written word can struggle to do.The project aims to present, raise awareness, sensibilize and prevent harmful attitudes against the environment through artwork. Through the scheduled mobilities the project envisions acknowledging Art as a strong influence on issues related to environmental preservation. Artworks are essential tools for ecological activism that alert the population to urgent matters, facilitate understanding messages about sustainability, and help mobilize people to fight for this cause. In addition, the Consortium will implement a comparative approach and photography research to shed light on the plastic waste management of the respective cities of the consortium, as a tool to exercise pressure on the Municipalities through its dissemination and communication.Target Groups•Youth workers, •Youngsters, Young people with fewer opportunities•Youth organizations•General publicMore specifically the project’s objectives concern the:•Introduction of young people and youth workers to environmental awareness •Creation of artworks from single-use of plastics, as a medium to tackle the use of single-use plastics•Adoption of good practices to reduce and manage plastic waste•Comparative research of the engaged countries to address major environmental issues and exercise pressure in the respective Municipalities

EYSET proposal involves 8 organizations from EU and Western Balkans Countries, ES, IT, BE, AL, XK, ME, BA with different and complementary profiles and experience according to the objectives fixed and activities proposed.The EYSET proposal target groups will be:-youth organizations -youth workers -stakeholders identified as public and private organizations that actively work for young people with and without disabilities social and labour inclusion, such as youth councils, youth platforms, chambers of commerce, associations, SMEs, public organizations supporting youth empowerment, etc., at local, regional national, EU/WB and extra EU levelNº of youth organizations involved in project activities minimum 139, youth workers minimum 24, young people minimum 122, minimum 49 stakeholders.GO: Empowering youth organizations making them able to contribute to young people and young people with disabilities social inclusion and fast track integration into the labour market.SO1: to enhance the suitable environment to raise the capacity of organizations working with young people with/without disabilities outside formal learning to support fast track integration of young people into the labour market, making them able to be social entrepreneurs in the tourism value chain, R1 Capacity building for youth organizationsSO2: to foster the development of youth work, improving its quality providing innovative methods, tools and material to support the empowerment of youth workers making them able to support young people in being social entrepreneurs in the tourism value chain, R2 Toolkit for youth workersSO3: to enhance cooperation across EU and WB countries, through joint initiatives promoting youth employability and the awareness of the importance of the creation of useful and proper tools to foster the social and labour inclusion of young people without and with disabilities exploiting social entrepreneurship in the tourism value chain. R3 Policy Recommendations

Quality youth projects (from idea to implementation) bring sustainability of youth work, raise capacities and motivation of youth workers, contribute to the recognition of youth work, bring better impact to young people and society, keep young people motivated and engaged, raises quality of learning and involvement through youth work, raises civic and democratic engagement and brings reputation to youth organisation and youth field in general. That is why we focus on importance of building capacities of youth workers to develop, prepare, apply and implement youth projects on high quality level. Responding to the relevant and realistic needs and challenges further brings the next level of problems that youth organisation found themselves in – solutions and ideas became vague, not innovative and limited. Building up on that, we have realised that for the innovative solutions, quality projects, sustainability of the youth programmes and stronger impact of our work, one of the main thing lacking in the youth sector is the strategic networking, establishing quality and meaningful national and especially international cooperation in the youth field among the youth organisations, but also with the youth authorities, decision and policy makers, institutions working with and for young people and even business sector. This synergy is crucial for success of the youth work and highly contributes to its recognition and validation. The aim of this project is to improve the quality of youth projects, foster the innovative approaches to project-based youth work and encourage quality structured networking and cooperation in youth work field.Specific Objective 1:To enhance socio-professional development and international cooperation of youth workers by strengthening their capacities in the field of project writing and project management and empower innovations in finding solutions and developing ideas.Specific Objective 2: To increase quality and strategic approach to cooperation and networking between youth We plan to achieve these aim and objectives through set of capacity building and mobility activities:1. Online partner meeting2. Training courses on using design thinking methodology for solution-based project ideas, project writing and project management for youth workers and on networking, quality cooperation in youth field and successful cross-sectoral cooperation3. Study visits between partners on quality of project management, implementation and cooperation with local authorities/youth institutions/other stakeholders4. MOOC and video tutorials on complete youth project writing5. Follow up practice activities of participants6. Digital interactive manual about using design thinking methodology to innovate project ideas7. Large scale event gathering youth workers, youth institutions, bodies, other stakeholders from other sectorsThe project gathers 8 partner organisations from 7 Programme and Neighbor countries and will last for 21 months.

WB SEA is multi-stakeholder action tending to contribute to: Depicting social economy as a brain-gain catalyst in the Western Balkans, thus, building the capacities of youth organizations in WB region to embed social economy in their strategic planning and positioning and work towards the development of social economy programmes and advocacy initiatives. Stimulate youth brain-gain in WB region by supporting the creation of an enabling environment for youth employment through promotion of self-employment and social entrepreneurship practices. Fostering regional cooperation, capacity-building and an exchange of know-how and good practices between WB countries and EU with the aim of developing regional approach towards social economy as well as strengthening the existing social economy ecosystems.Support economic and social development of the WB region by offering a strategic approach towards social economy and inclusion of youth as agents of change in context of the regional aspirations for membership in the European Union.