Youth Center Balti

Youth center Balti is an idea originally developed during the STUDEM project between Silba and CREEDD. The center will be the first physical space to be used and manage by youth in Balti. Therefore, the partnership project has many channels through which it impacts society. The aim of the partnership project is to strengthen the platform for youth initiatives outside the capital and create an umbrella-solution gathering capacity of youth-led projects and mobilizations. In this way, we want to change the NGO culture of Moldova to focus more on institutional sustainability, abstract development goals that are long-term and volunteer work. Through the youth-center we aim to develop the youth?s skills in understanding of politics and the political system, critical thinking, debating, and sustainability in institutions. We aim to do this through the training of the elected board and a 3-month preparation. We wish to build the ground for a future advocacy platform representing the youth of Balti in local politics. We do this by establishing a political ?school? and a debateclub as the two first initiatives under the umbrella besides STUDEM - Step up for democracy. The target group of the project are young people between the ages of 14 and 23 years involved in the education process. The project will collaborate with a minimum of 10 educational institutions (high schools, vocational schools, colleges and the University of Balti). During the 2 years of project implementation we intend to involve at least 1000 young people in various activities and initiatives. The project also supports the best initiatives of young people. In this sense, the center will have several mini-grants programs for young people, which will come to further encourage the involvement of young people, but also to put into practice the best and viable initiatives.