Background

For ten years, YMCA, Gabrovo, has been working in support of Gabrovo s young people. The organization maintains immediate contact with representatives of public institutions, local authorities and other NGOs at local, regional and national level.

Practice

The YMCA Start project provides training to young people who represent informal groups or officially registered NGOs. Two series of trainings were held, on needs assessment of youth communities and on development of youth projects. The organization also allocated funds for the implementation of small-scale youth initiatives based on specific projects developed by youth teams. Initially, young leaders from YMCA, Gabrovo, and from other youth organizations in the city were actively involved in the project; later, the circle of participants was expanded.

The idea for the Discussion Forum project came up as a result of YMCA s training seminars under the YMCA Start project in 1996. Upon sharing experience with partners, in 1999, the Phenomenon 2000 Youth Club in Madan conducted its own needs assessment of young people s problems. In 2000, the Dream For Change Youth Center in Buhovo organized a youth discussion club to conduct an in-depth study of Buhovo s young people s problems. The involvement of young people of different ages and the survey of the opinion of parents, teachers and representatives of different public institutions related to youth issues, were extremely useful.

The Children Day Camps project came up as a result of a workshop of a group of young people. One-week children day camps were organized during the holiday periods. Approximately 20 to 30 young people, aged 15 to 18, took care of the children in the camp and organized different events during the day. All children camp leaders received mandatory training on teamwork, working with children, and were instructed on a daily basis by the camp director.

Results

More than 90 young leaders were trained for the 4-year period of the project and got the opportunity to develop and implement youth projects. A Together We Can project was implemented under the Discussion Forum, with funding from Save the Children Fund, Sofia. Surveys, round-table discussions and focus groups were used to conduct an in-depth study of youth problems in Gabrovo. Specific steps were made towards solving immediate problems of the youth: educational radio programs, a youth conference, volunteer trainings. The results were announced to the public through the media. Five children camps were held so far under the Children Day Camps project and more than 50 young people were trained. Sharing this experience with partner organizations has led to the replication of this effort in Devin and Sofia.