In cooperation with the Serbian Youth Umbrella Organisation, the National Association of Youth Workers (NAPOR) and the National Youth Office, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights hosted the event “From the Inclusion Standard to Inclusion as the Standard”. The event was held in the Belgrade Hotel Mama Shelter on 23 December 2019, with the support of the Serbian Ministry of Youth and Sports and the OSCE Mission to Serbia. The event was opened by BCHR Executive Director Sonja Tošković, who welcomed the participants and invited them to continue working together on the social inclusion of all youths.
The participants went on to present five good practice examples of work with youths from vulnerable groups, providing the project partners and representatives of organisations of youths and for youths with better insight in the diverse practices and policies, with a view to facilitating the design of inclusion standards that will be meaningful, clear and applicable. The event is part of a broader consultation process aiming to define inclusion standards in order to improve the policies and practices of organisations of youths and for youths addressing youths from vulnerable groups.
The good practice examples of work with youths from vulnerable groups were presented by: Selena Simić, Organisation for the Promotion of Activism; Maja Ćurčić, Art Aparat association; Miodrag Kastratović, Serbian Association of Dance Organisations; Snežana Lazarević, Mental Disability Rights Initiative-Serbia; and, Milica Jelić, Kraljevo City Local Services Centre.
The participants then split up into groups to discuss various aspects of accessibility indispensable for improving practices of work with youths from vulnerable groups. They endeavoured to define what specific aspects of accessibility entailed and their desired outcomes regarding each of them, with a view to ensuring that the future inclusion standards are based on expertise, experience and insights of organisations of youths and for youths.
The representatives of three national alliances – Uroš Savić Kain of the Serbian Youth Umbrella Organisation, Džemaludin Paučinac of the National Youth Office, and Jelena Stojanović of the National Association of Youth Workers – shared the experiences of their alliances in social inclusion efforts and their plans to include all youths in programmes and projects implemented by these alliances and their members.
Following the discussion “Social Inclusion: State of Play and Way Forward,” youths, who had attended NAPOR’s one-year training for youth leaders were awarded certificates attesting to the knowledge they gained.
