6 partner organisations from Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia, Romania, Croatia, and Greece gathered in Belgrade on 29-31 May to embark on a journey of encouraging youth participation through placemaking. 

During the two-day meeting, the representatives of BG Be Active Association (Bulgaria), Association Sport for All Serbia (Serbia), AJSPT Suceava (Romania), STIPO Greece (Greece), Istrian Sport Academy (Croatia) and Sport Social Solutions (North Macedonia) introduced each other to their activities and discussed together the plans for the project. With the idea of exploring better youth needs and needed competences, the partners shared their practices of working with youth on the topics of physical activity and placemaking. Together they joined the placemaking training on getting a better insight into methodology.

The project is emblematic in a way that it gathers grassroots organisations with equal role of bringing placemaking for youth in their countries. As the partners come from the Balkan region with striking similarities, each of them will get to test the developed methodology in the national context of each country and discover the local patterns of youth behaviour. 

The project idea also rests on a synergy of several concepts – youth involvement, placemaking, and physical activity and seeks to develop a comprehensive framework of youth empowerment in public spaces to be agents of change in placemaking. Empowering youth in the co-created imagining of place fosters agency, feelings of acceptance within their communities, and a reality of engaged citizens for the future. The partners thus have a far-reaching ambition to create youth-oriented placemaking methodology and youth movement that would be further transferred outwards the region and create a momentum in other contexts.

Initiated by BG Be Active and backed by dedicated partner organisations from five Balkan countries, Youth Placemaking Balkans is a youth movement designed to improve youth entrepreneurship and active citizenship in the democratic processes by providing them with the relevant civic skills through creating inclusive and engaging spaces for and by young people.

Reach out to us today to discover how you can contribute to the project, participate in our activities, or get answers to any questions you may have. Together, we are “Empowering Youth, Transforming Spaces: Uniting for Better Balkans.”