Association for Cultural and Educational Development YOUTH ON BOARD

Association for Cultural, Sport and Educational Development - YOUTH ON BOARD from Shtip, N. Macedonia is voluntary, non-profit, non-governmental, non-partisan association of citizens, established by the free association of citizens for exercising, protecting ,and coordinating their interests, rights and beliefs to promote civil society, civic engagement within the local community as well as to perform activities to en-courage moral values, strengthen inter-ethnic relations and economic development on the territory of Shtip, the region and abroad, in accordance with the Constitution and laws of our country.

The main goals of the Association are: to improve the quality of education attainment of young people, advocate for purposeful and effective improvements within the non-formal and formal education sector, work to create an environment where youngsters living in the community could improve and develop their professional lifestyle and their ability to quickly find a job or successfully open their own business; modern interactive methods and content that stimulate youth; increasing the qualitative and quantitative portfolio for cultural, sports, volunteering and other activities for young people; enhancing the appeal for cultural events amongst young people by advocating and working on increasing their part in the planning, development and executing processes within events of such kind, create and implement a policy from the youth, by the youth and with the youth present at all levels, starting from the needs and interests of young people, supporting and promoting youth organizations, determination of measures and recommendations related to the youth sector; through a variety of activities we enrich knowledge and inter-ethnic and intercultural friendship amongst young people so they can set up a positive atmosphere; networking with local, national and international youth and cultural organizations; and, strengthening leadership, self-awareness and self-esteem amongst young people through their involvement in organized formats of action. In addition to this we are active advocates for the lawful rights of our youngsters in all aspects of their lives within our community. Through our work we stimulate and empower our youngsters to be more interested for their rights and be more proactive within their community, furthermore through our work we aim to portray and promote a spirit of philanthropy as means for encouraging cultural integration and improving the collective wellbeing of our community with all its ethnicities. Our work also includes environmental activism and one of our goals is indeed to further develop our agenda in this regard, as we recognize the fundamental need for work in this sector within our community. In addition to this our organization represents a strong advocate for gender equality and women’s rights, and this problematic is something we are very passionate about and dedicated to contribute to the resolution of it in our community. Besides this, we dedicate great portions of time and effort in promoting sustainable healthcare education specifically in fields such as sexual education, healthy lifestyle, and healthy nutrition, preventing sexual abuse, preventing violence within the households etc. Owing to the fact that we primarily work with young people aging from 16-29 our organization had signed a memorandum with the University of “Goce Delcev” from Shtip with whom we have had fruitful cooperation in the past. As previously mentioned one of our main goals is to focus on working on creating a more sustainable and effective youth policy that would allow for our youngsters to be more included with the decision making process in our local community, this remains our main priority for the upcoming year. Besides this our agenda for the next year includes aiming to do more work in the previously mentioned fields of activism, thus we are able to achieve a more complementary agenda, one encompassing all our aims and goals into a more unified structure that would be most beneficial to our youngsters.