The Institute for Youth Development KULT conducted a research on the position and needs of young people in the Municipality of Vlasenica, and interviewed around 350 young people aged 15 to 30 on the following topics:
- Youth education and science
- Youth work, employment and entrepreneurship
- Youth social care
- Youth health care
- Culture and sports
- Youth activism, participation, volunteering, mobility and migration
- Youth safety
- Youth during the COVID-19 pandemic
In addition to research on the needs and problems of young people, the Institute also supports the work of the coordinating body and working groups through short trainings and working meetings.
The second meeting of the coordinating body was dedicated to the analysis of the first steps, understanding the challenges that the working groups face in the field, and the introduction to a more concrete definition of problems and needs of young people that future youth policy will address. Through the meeting, special attention was paid to understanding the problems that young people have, creating priority areas that local youth policy should address in the next five years.
As full understanding and better involvement of young people in the development of strategic documents is extremely important, a focus group with young people was held on the same day, as well as an event called “Youth Dialogue”.
In this way, in an interview with young people through a focus group, the Institute was able to check and confirm the research findings and enable young people to participate in the preparation of this strategic document.
The Youth Dialogue is organized in order to include opinions and suggestions of young people and professionals in local youth policy. The event gathers young people who are active within various organizations and associations, but also young people who are not active with professionals who work on some topics and areas important for the life of young people.
The Youth Dialogue event gathered 23 representatives of public institutions, local government, NGOs and young people who discussed the problems and needs of young people in the field of education, employment, social welfare, culture, sports and youth activism. Dialogue gives young people the opportunity to present their ideas even though they are not part of official structures. This is especially important in Vlasenica because young people do not have an active local youth council, and the number of civil society organizations dealing with youth issues is small.
The conclusions of the Youth Dialogue will be included in the draft local youth policy through the research areas.
The youth policy will be adopted at the level of the Republika Srpska and local self-government units for a period of five years. Based on the adopted youth policy, the Republika Srpska and local self-government units will adopt an action plan for the implementation of youth policy for a period of one year. The action plan should be adopted within 30 days from the day of the adoption of the budget for the year for which the action plan is adopted. The youth policy and the action plan for the implementation of the youth policy for the area of the local self-government unit are adopted by the assembly of the local self-government unit at the proposal of the competent body of the local self-government unit and the youth commission.
The development of the local youth policy in the Municipality of Vlasenica is implemented with the support of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Resilience Initiative (BHRI) program. The program is implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), with the financial support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
