Not Neat to be NEET (Not in Employment, Education, or Training) – building capacities of the Western Balkan’s youth organizations for more inclusive projects and full participation of youth with fewer opportunities.

Inclusion and diversity are priority areas of the Erasmus+ program 2021-2027. However, experienced youth organizations know that the inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities, including people with disabilities, people with more serious health problems, people living in rural and remote areas, people facing socio-economic difficulties in youth projects is challenging. The fact is that the inclusion of young people with reduced opportunities often requires much more effort and work, as well as resources that are not always available in reality.  What about organizations from smaller communities in the Western Balkan region? How do they cope with the challenge of including young people with fewer opportunities in their youth projects and activities?
However, regardless of the capacities of the youth organization, it is very important for all youth organizations, what methodology is used in the development and implementation of (Erasmus+) projects that want to include young people with fewer opportunities. It is irrational to plan the inclusion of young people with disabilities in a youth project and then organize an informal education event in a facility inaccessible to people with disabilities. Or to plan the inclusion of young people who face economic obstacles caused by, for example, low family income, and then ask them to finance their own international travel to and from the location of non-formal education activities.  And if they somehow manage to do it beforehand, forcing them to wait for the reimbursement of their travel expenses for weeks after they return home, and for them to pay the costs of the international money transfer.
Yet these irrational things happen more often than we care to admit. And they happen, among other things, because youth organizations do not have more qualified staff and/or volunteers specialized in providing support for the participation of young people with fewer opportunities.
Consortium members consisting of youth organizations from the Western Balkan region: the association “People’s Parliament” from Leskovac – Serbia, the Agency of Local Democracy from Mostar – Bosnia and Herzegovina, the NGO Glas from Podgorica – Montenegro,  the Center for Bridging Communities from Tirana – Albania and the Drenas Youth Center from Glogovac – Kosovo wants to change this fact through this Erasmus+ project. We believe that youth organizations from smaller communities in the Western Balkan region also need capacity building and new volunteers and staff working to support the participation of young people with fewer opportunities. We also believe that these current and future youth workers need transnational opportunities to learn from and work with each other and to network on a stronger platform, allowing greater inclusion and diversity in youth projects in the region.