Lobbying and Advocacy in the Youth field

The training program develops the capacity of youth organizations to be sustainable and active in the process of protecting causes and defending positions. Develop youth workers in understanding the processes of lobbying and advocacy and confidence to use the tools in these fields. Strengthens the awareness of organizations for their role in the creation of policies at national and international level. Training is conducted twice at national level and once on international gathering numerous youth organizations, supporting them in increasing their capacity. The program is prepared in order to share best practices developed and adapted during the application of Varna for European Youth Capital. Training transmits the entire experience of the team from the first application until winning the title for 2017. Lessons learned from the last international edition will be taken into account and the participants will be able to go more deeply through the process of planning and advocacy campaign, step by step, with input by trainers and guest speaker. The main directions of the program are: • Promote the importance of youth opinion in the process of decision-making at local, national and international level; • Increase the organizational capacity and independence through enhancing the competencies of youth leaders in the structured dialogue, lobbying and advocacy; • Ensuring the development of active citizenship, democratic principles and the responsibility of youth organizations and informal youth groups. The framework of the training course is:  Make the youth voice valuable in the decision making processes in local, national and international level;  Strengthen organizational capacity and autonomy by building capacity of youth leader in the topics of structured dialogue of lobbying and advocacy;  Ensuring the development of active participation and democratic principles and responsibility in youth organizations and non-formal youth groups. Objectives of the training course: 1. To help youth organizations improve their work through specific studies and actions designed to fill in their gaps in information, material means and assertiveness in the topics of structured dialogue of lobbying and advocacy; 2. To empower youth leaders to conduct lobby activities so as to encourage initiative taking in social sphere and build further awareness; 3. To help NGO’s improve their ability to participate in the structured dialogue process and to encourage them to participate in the decision making processes; 4. To engage in cooperation with international organizations pursuing similar ends and join networks that may contribute to its functions. Target group: The training is suitable for members for youth organizations (youth workers, youth leaders, volunteers, project coordinators etc.) with interest to develop their competencies in the field of Lobbying and Advocacy. Training can be very beneficial for organizational board members, decision makers and presidents who want to strengthen their organizational capacity to work on higher level in influencing youth policies and strategies. Trainer’s team: Ognian Gadoularov Alexander Kumanov Additionally invited guest speakers: Maya Doneva – The social Teahouse, Varna. Part of the Varna 2017 application team.