ROUTE WB6

Project Partners:

Year of Realisation:

2020

Goal and Project Description:

The cross-border volunteering for peace and reconciliation is a tool that combines community engagement and peace education, both essential for strengthening civic and intercultural competence, a decisive element for reconciliation as well as democratization of the WB societies. Throughout the project, RYCO and its implementing partners will use cross-border volunteering as a mechanism for reducing social and ethnic distance among young people in the region and raising pro-social and European values to foster reconciliation, stability and prosperity in the WB6 region.

The Project supports RYCO’s work in partnering with civil society, education systems and schools, grass-roots movements, youth institutions and youth in general. Project activities focus on strengthening and consolidating RYCO’s competences as a regionally-owned mechanism promoting reconciliation, mobility, diversity, democratic values, participation, active citizenship and intercultural learning.

Project Results:

The advocating strategy can be divided into three project outcomes:

1) Volunteering policy reform – to promote an enabling policy environment for volunteering development in order to increase the outreach of young people who volunteer; this will contribute to the creation of the regional policy foundation on volunteering that partner organisations (National volunteer services – NVSs in WB6) will use as the framework for advocacy efforts on volunteering policy reforms in WB6.

2) Establishment of the Regional Volunteer Service and regional volunteer program ROUTE WB6 – The Regional Volunteer Services will serve as the regional resource centre on volunteering that will collect resources and coordinates the work of the National Volunteer Services in each of the WB6 with a purpose to: make available regional volunteering practice, ensure regional advocacy effort for volunteering policy; promote cross-border volunteering for peace and reconciliation; maintain regional program ROUTE WB6; provide capacity building to CSOs and youth beneficiaries of the regional program as well as to monitor and evaluate regional volunteer programs.

3) Scaling up of the Regional Volunteer Program ROUTE WB6 – the newly designed regional program will be scaled up through RYCO 1st granting round for volunteering available for the organisations and schools in WB6. 50 individuals will have the opportunity to get involved in long-term exchanges and around 400 young people will participate in group volunteer exchanges. These exchanges will consist of both community engagement and an education component to further reconciliation and intercultural dialogue.

Target Group:

Youth on Western Balkan

Project Spacial Area:

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia

Funding Sources:

Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) (NOK 9.459.173; YRS grant NOK 517.632)

Additional Information:

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.