In local communities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, youth officers play a key role in advocating the interests of young people. Local communities implement a number of activities aimed at young people, but systematic monitoring and evaluation of these programs is often lacking. In order to improve the understanding of existing programs and improve new initiatives aimed at young people, youth officers, through the Basic Training of Youth Officers, deal with the preparation of public calls for youth projects, as well as methods for monitoring and evaluating youth programs.
During the second training module, emphasis was placed on the exchange of experiences in working with young people, the role of youth officers in the preparation and implementation of public calls for young people, the management of grants awarded to young people, and the monitoring and evaluation of projects for young people. All this contributes to an easier response to the needs of young people in the local community, and ultimately to a stronger youth sector and more active young people.
Monitoring youth programs in local government units is key to ensuring their success and sustainability. Through systematic monitoring, youth officers can assess the effectiveness and impact of the program in detail. Methods for monitoring and evaluation enable the identification of internal and external factors that influence the programs, providing a comprehensive picture that is needed to improve and create better public calls for youth projects. Regular monitoring also helps in identifying potential problems in time, enables adjustment of strategies and improves transparency and responsibility in working with young people.
“The inspired young people I met, officials or those who want to become officials, directed towards creating better opportunities and conditions for young people in their communities is definitely my driving motive from now on. After these two training modules of exchange of experiences from different local communities, I had the opportunity to familiarize myself with policies towards young people, different legal practices of youth activities in municipalities/cities, entities, but also to find out how, from the position of a youth officer, I can make calls for projects more accessible and more transparent for young people in Kneževo. The interesting, interactive and creative exercises we have gone through so far will certainly be my additional motivation to continue to be more active in my local community, improve professionally and make a change together with these inspired young people,” said Dijana Milisavić, Municipality of Kneževo.
The second training module was an opportunity for further exchange of experiences in working with young people and enabled officers to better understand the programs they implement in relation to other communities. Through this training module, officers also practiced their leadership skills and teamwork. Working to assess their leadership style and analyzing the teams in which officers work, they considered how youth programs depend on teamwork in individual services.
The module combined the theoretical and practical part, which resulted in interesting interaction, exchange of experiences, good practices, and offered the participants practical application through a series of techniques that they can include in their daily work with youth organizations.
“As a person who has worked in this service for a short time, I can say that much of the training is new to me. Kudos to the trainers because they try to bring the material they teach as close as possible to all of us, so that it is clear, understandable and applicable. This training will benefit me in my future work and efforts to improve the status of young people in a small local community. And I especially welcome all colleagues from the training, because we are a good team and I hope for further cooperation” , said Nikola Oroz, Municipality of Fojnica.
For many years, the KULT Institute for Youth Development has been organizing and implementing training programs for youth officials and certification of officials who work with young people in city, municipal/municipal and cantonal authorities. The training program consists of 120 working hours, divided into five mandatory modules that will be held in the period from June to December 2024 in different cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Awarding of certificates to successful participants will take place in December this year.
Source: mladi.org
