“Free Citizen” Civic Initiatives Support Center (“Free Citizen” CISC, Armenia) and Public Movement Multinational Georgia (PMMG, Georgia) in partnership with People in Need (Czech Republic) and SALTO Youth Eastern Europe and Caucasus Resource Center (Poland) completed the first phase of the implementation of the project “Young Activist” Young Civic Activists Capacity Building in Social Campaigning. The project is funded by the International Visegrad Fund (IVF, Bratislava, Slovakia) and the Netherlands Government. More than 200 young civic activists from the regions of Armenia and Georgia were recruited for participation in the workshops conducted by experienced trainers and experts.
Five workshops were organized in Aragatsotn, Kotayq, Tavush, Gegharkunik, and Shirak marzes (regions) of Armenia, and five – in Kvemo-Karthly, Samtskhe-Javakhety, Kakhety, and Ajara regions of Georgia. The aim of the workshops was to raise awareness among participants about the European Union, Council of Europe, Eastern Partnership, and Visegrad 4 format, as well as provide general information about campaigning, including social media, public speaking and debating, and other relevant topics. During the workshops, participants had the possibility to discuss issues they have identified as more relevant for young people of their region such as environmental protection, unemployment, including among disabled people, high level of migration (labor migration), low level of civic and political engagement of youth, especially women, limited opportunities for development and leisure (absence of sport and cultural clubs) for youth in the regions, especially in the rural areas, stereotypes and prejudices in various fields, minority rights, poor infrastructure, including the quality of roads, bad transport connections,, limited access to information, the vulnerability of the local population to fake news in various fields, education-related issues (school infrastructure, access to higher education, access of women to education). During the next stage of the Project, seven more workshops will be organized in remained marzes of Armenia and the capital Yerevan.
Based on the results of the workshops, 20 young people from Armenia and 10 from Georgia will be selected to participate in a 5-day Summer School which will take place in June 2018 in Armenia.
Thematic workshops and a special session on networking between Armenian and Georgian civic activists are envisaged to be organized during the event.
In addition, a Regional Youth Conference on Civic Activism is scheduled to take place in Yerevan following the Summer School in June 2018. Sixty participants in the workshops will be selected to participate in the Conference.
Finally, 10 young people from Armenia and 5 from Georgia will be invited to participate in an 8-day study trip to the Czech Republic and other Visegrad countries in July 2018.
“Free Citizen” Civic Initiatives Support Center press service
