Through the Youth Fund of the Regional Youth Dialogue for Europe, We are supporting regional projects that will contribute to the improvement of youth activism, participation and policy making skills at the local and national level. We are increasing the political participation of women, empowering young people for changes in the community, for dialogue, fostering peace and integration, advocating for a green future and the Youth Guarantees.
Regional Youth Dialogue for Europe – RYDE is funded by European Union.
PROJECT: School Student Lab (SSL) – enhancing youth activism on local and national level
Organization: Union of Secondary School Students of Serbia – UNSS (Unija srednjoškolaca Srbije), Serbia.
Project: School Student Lab (SSL) – enhancing youth activism on local and national level.
Overall objective is to strengthen national school student activism movement in Serbia for greater impact on youth and educational policies on local and national level, through participation in policy making and monitoring and supporting structured activism. Specific objectives: To contribute to the enabling environment for activism and participation; To strengthen school student structures on local level; To develop capacity of national representative school student structure for efficient and independent development of policy papers, monitoring reports, legislation revision, and budget analysis related to education and life of school students, as youngest youth category.
Key results achieved:
- Submitted two policy proposals to the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia to amend the Law on the Foundations of the Education System and the Law on Secondary Education, introducing stronger mechanisms for student participation, democratic school governance, and youth inclusion in decision-making.
- 162 school students produced a Declaration of High School Students on the Quality of Education and Active Participation, which was adopted by 40 representatives from UNSS member schools at the National School Student Conference “School Students in Focus”.
- Strengthened youth engagement and solidarity by coordinating democracy-focused school activities involving 700 students and teachers across 11 school student councils.
- Strengthened the capacities of 111 student activists through five local trainings that piloted UNSS’s new Training Curriculum and School Student Councils Development Matrix, improving their skills in democratic governance, decision-making, advocacy, rights protection, and cooperation with local institutions.
- Improved the resilience, leadership, and organizational skills of 47 youth activists from the Activist Pool through two online workshops on crisis leadership, policy engagement, time management, burnout prevention, peer support, and sustainable activism.
- Enhanced the analytical and advocacy skills of UNSS staff, volunteers, and youth representatives through two capacity-building trainings enabling evidence-based participation in education and youth policy.
- Supported a nationwide student movement through real-time monitoring and documentation, and created a publicly accessible map presenting 164 solidarity actions initiated by high school students across Serbia.
- The publication “A Chewing Gum for Every Student? An Overview of the Republic Budget for Education for 2025” has been published.
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The Youth Fund „Local Youth Initiatives“
The Youth Fund „Local Youth Initiatives“ is a FSTP (financial support to third parties) i.e. sub-granting activity of the three-year regional project „Regional Youth Dialogue for Europe“ (RYDE), funded by the European Union in the period 2023-2026 through EU Civil Society Facility and Media Programme in favour of the Western Balkans and Turkey for 2021-2023 (IPA III). The RYDE project is being implemented by the Center for Democracy Foundation from Serbia as a lead partner in cooperation with the partnering civil society organizations from the Western Balkans: Academy of European Integrations and Negotiations (Albania), Youth Act Center (Albania), Kosovar Stability Initiative (Kosovo*), Network of Progressive Initiatives (Bosnia and Herzegovina), NGO Info Center Foundation (North Macedonia) and Regional Academy for Democratic Development (Serbia).
Regional Youth Dialogue for Europe – RYDE
