Critical Mass #62
Latest News Critical Mass #62 In May 2014, the citizens’ initiative Bitola #naTocak initiated the first #Critical Mass. Then, for the first time, we called the citizens to come out and send an unambiguous message to the public officials that the traffic in Bitola is practically violence on the asphalt that is nurtured and nourished by the policies that have been practiced for decades, especially in recent years. All this results in pushing and chasing the citizens who move in alternative ways (on foot, on bike, with supportive equipment due to physical disabilities, parents with small children, etc.) from the city streets and forcing them to switch to moving by car as the only way which is safe under the given conditions. Here, after 8 years, the city is not only facing the same problem, but is starting to relentlessly fight with the sudden increase in the number of vehicles, which creates an additional suffocating traffic jam, and citizens who want to be active and move in alternative ways to be thrown into the fire along with the heavyweights on the streets. What we expect from local elected officials is to show a rudimentary sense of safety to move around the city and invest in sustainable modes of movement through safe and comfortable pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. As concerned citizens, we have always been an ally of the Municipality, pointing out to the local authorities that this traffic system is unsustainable and that the Municipality, after decades of investment only in the replacement of asphalt and widening of the streets for the purpose of flow and comfort for cars, it is time to turn back and to see that he has forgotten his citizens who move daily in the city streets in extremely unsafe conditions. In spite of the fact that the citizens came out on the streets 61 times with clear messages, the influence of the Municipality remains 0 kilometers of bicycle infrastructure built. In the meantime, numerous widened and newly opened streets are being built without planning bicycle traffic. Numerous promises for a final turnaround and planning of investments, so that Bitola becomes first of all a city for people, and not a city choked with motor vehicles. In the last local elections all parties and groups that make up the city Council were UNANIMOUS that our reactions are justified and necessary and that they will advocate for changes in traffic planning. When we already have that consensus, we see no reason for further delays. Bitola can become a cycling city in one mandate if it is set as a strategic objective. For now, we don’t see that. While the whole world invests in sustainable lifestyles, we remain stuck in the past.
Label of Trust Workshop
Latest News Label of Trust Workshop On 07.02.2022, 17 civil society organizations got acquainted with the standards of the Label of Trust and the benefits of using it through an online presentation. Among them was the YMCA youth association with its representative. The trust mark is a self-regulatory system that aims to make it easier for citizens and companies to choose trustworthy organizations to which they can donate. It strives to increase long-term trust between civil society organizations (CSOs) and local donors. The label is obtained through a carefully created process and criteria for transparency, accountability, performance results, compliance with legal regulations, etc. Civil organizations that possess the trust mark are good partners of citizens, but also other stakeholders in the community. Why donate to an organization that holds the label of trust? They have passed the process of internal inspection of the operation A board of experts from several fields evaluated the operation of the CSO They are recognized in the community as a reliable partner working in the public interest Increased transparency and accountability of CSOs To acquire the label of trust, a CSO has to adhere to a certain set of principles and criteria in the following areas: Mission and values Democratic management of an organization Financial management Transparency and reporting Communication and Advocacy Fundraising Human resources To receive the trust mark, civil organizations first perform a self-assessment, that is, they fill out a questionnaire for the evaluation of their work, and then the board of the trust mark checks all the documentation and additional meetings with the CSO. At the end of this process, the Board decides whether the CSO will receive the trust mark.
Youth Council in Bitola
Latest News Youth Council in Bitola On February 2, 2022, the constitutive session of the local Youth Council took place in Bitola Municipality. In addition to its project contributions, the YMCA actively engages in the city by participating in the local Volunteering Council. Now, the YMCA extends its involvement in the Youth Council with Ivana assuming the role of President. We extend our best wishes to her and the entire team for success! Ivana Atanasovska was chosen as the Youth Council President from two candidates. Mayor Toni Konjanovski addressed the nine council members, expressing hopes for their future endeavors and encouraging the generation of constructive ideas and proposals. These efforts aim to retain youth in the city and collaborate with local self-government to improve the Municipality’s future. Gabriela Ilievska, the Council President, conveyed her belief that the well-known saying “youth is our future” will be substantiated through the Youth Council’s actions, demonstrating the significant impact young individuals can make in preventing the emigration of their peers. Both the Council President and the Mayor stressed the Municipality’s readiness for continuous collaboration with the Youth Council, anticipating numerous initiatives and projects within legal constraints.
YMCA West Balkan Initiative
Latest News YMCA West Balkan Initiative West Balkan Initiative started during the pandemic period and with the idea of improving self-sustainability, good governance, and idea-sharing for strategical funding as a group in the balkan region. The leaders of YMCAs in N. Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, and Serbia hold regular meetings where they discuss joined strategies and national plans in order to create the action plan for this West Balkan Initiative. The goal is to develop every YMCAs local movement, reaching out to more communities with this joint effort, sharing our mission and vision. Follow our facebook page for updates on this!
Impact Summit 2019
Latest News Impact Summit 2019 On Saturday, the 21st of December, YMCA Bitola hosted its 4th annual Impact Summit at the NOVA International School in Skopje. The goal of the event was to bring together staff and campers from the 2019 GLOW and YMLP camps to highlight the service the campers and staff completed in their home communities both in their local GLOW or YMLP clubs. The event was also a great way to bring the staff and campers together from GLOW and YMLP 2019 to catch up about what everyone has been doing since camp in the summer. This year, 60 club leaders and members attended the event in Skopje to showcase their service projects. All clubs were responsible for designing and implementing their own service projects including applying for grants from YMCA Bitola for any materials they required. This year’s clubs had extremely creative and impactful projects including: working with youth with special needs, workshops on raising awareness topics, and upgrading school walls with useful and educational murals among many others. While the participants were extremely pleased with the classes and the event, we want to especially thank our donors: Mermeren Kombinat, OKTA, SASA Mine, TAV Airports, Alkaloid and Kromberg & Schubert, ESM, EED, Horus as well as individual donors for providing the monetary donations to make Impact Summit possible, and the NOVA International School for allowing us to use their beautiful space. We look forward to seeing all that we can accomplish in our communities this next spring!
Service Projects of GLOW & YMLP clubs (Autumn) 2019
Latest News Service Projects of GLOW & YMLP clubs (Autumn) 2019 The GLOW and YMLP Youth Fund by YMCA provides opportunities for GLOW&YMLP Clubs throughout the country to implement skills they ve learned in service project design and management by writing a grant and implementing a project to improve their community. In this years round of grant applications. 10 clubs were awarded the grant based on their project proposals, written by youth leaders, in the areas of environment, civic engagement and arts. GLOW & YMLP Club Bitola had divided their service project in two parts, before and after the new year period. In the first part they did literacy workshop on the subject “Reduce hate speech in the community” adapted to primary school kids, with aspects of improving the sense of belonging among the youth in the special needs communities. This was done in the Primary School “Kliment Ohridski” in Bitola. In the second part. “Diversity and Inclusion” will be included, it will introduce kids to diverse communities, especially with the special needs community. since this project will be mounting bird houses in the park around the school for kids with special needs in Bitola. GLOW & YMLP Club Delcheva did something similar bringing awareness about the discrimination against people with special needs in ther community GLOW and YMLP Club Gevgelija identified couple of Issues in their community – the absence of a recycling progratt and the abundance of litter on the streets. They did a clothing and food drive outside of the theater house in their community. GLOW and YMLP Clubs Gostivar completed their service project by providing some community members and families in Gostivar who are struggling with supplies, to acquire nutritious food, Furthermore, since winter is coming, some families may find it more difficult to acquire food. GLOW and YMLP Club Kochani held their service project having in mind the bad situation of the familles which are financially unstable especially in the winter time. They made blankets for families in need in the community, as well as donating clothes to the Red Cross. GLOW and YMLP Club Resen had their service project making the chemistry classroom more interesting for the students. A wall in that classroom was empty and it needed something that would make studying chemistry a little more interesting for everybody. so painting a periodic table mural made the classroom more interesting. GLOW and YMLP Club Shtip spend their service project with students with special needs and made them feel included and noticed. They tried to break down stereotypes surrounding these issues, but also spread positivity in this melancholic year period of gloomy weather in our city. GLOW & YMLP Club Skopje had their service project also with the theme of inclusion and awareness of youth with special needs. They spend the afternoon with the students at the special needs school and started the process of building relationships with them. They did several holiday themed arts and crafts projects together with the special needs residents of that schools. They don’t get the chance to practice it out of the school classrooms. GLOW & YMLP Club Tetovo conducted a needs assessment for our community and determined that a prevalent problem that they can actually impact with our given resources is the lack of winter clothing available for less privileged members of our community, especially those that we often see sitting outside at intersections even in the coldest months. They made scarves and recycled plastic bags into reusable sitting mats, and finally they went out into the community and gave out gift bags with hats, scarves, gloves, and sitting mats to those in need! We want to especially thank our corporate partners and donors: we want to especially thank aur donors: Mermeren Kombinat. OKTA, SASA Mine, TAV Airports, Alkaloid and kromberg & Schubert, ESM. EED. Horus as well as individual donors for providing the monetary. donations to make these service projects possible, as well as individual donors for providing the monetary donations to make this activities possible.
YMCA Corporate Sponsorship Reception 2019
Latest News YMCA Corporate Sponsorship Reception 2019 On Wednesday November 6th 2019, at the Park Hotel&SPA in Skopje was held the Corporate Sponsorship Reception in which YMCA welcomed the current and previous corporate partners as well as other socially responsible companies present at the event. The aim of the event is to celebrate the youth empowerment and social responsibility honoring the current corporate partners for the GLOW & YMLP Youth Development Program. After the Executive Director of YMCA Viktor Iliev was introduced, he made a brief speech about the importance, added value and some of the key benefits of investing in the non-formal education for young people, as well as the rising social awareness among the millennials which need to be followed by the corporate sector. Then he introduced the U.S. Ambassador, Ms. Katie Mary Byrnes who spoke about her recent visit of the YMLP camp and the importance to invest in our youth to have such experiences so we can become even better in delivering education imbued with sense of strong values modeled around the values of responsibility, courage and democracy. Following were stories of the campers Spasko and Makedonka reflecting upon their recent camp experience and campers alumni josa and Slave who shared impressions from their times at the camp, but also what inspired them later to become successful in life. After that followed the ceremonial part to recognize the 2019 corporate partners Mermeren Kombinat and OKTA as gold sponsors. SASA Mine and TAV Airports as silver sponsors, Alkaloid as bronze sponsor, Kromberg & Schubert as sponsor and ESM as Donor. For this year we also had support through the Horus Macedonia’s “Sustainable Academy project activities. From the training provided from them. weve learned some very useful practices and methods for communicating with our corporate partners aiming toward building more stable partnerships with them during the whole year round. After that there was a period of informal socializing with some of our campers. and alumni. This was a possibility for the company representatives to become better acquainted with the impact of the program throuch the personal stories of the campers.
We have spirit, Yes we have!
Latest News We have spirit, Yes we have! “YMLP I don’t wanna go home” were among the last words chanted as campers packed their bags and left this year’s Young Men’s Leadership Project (YMLP Camp). Camp YMLP is an 8-day, multi-ethnic camp focused on empowering young men to be service leaders in their community. This year’s camp was held from July 14 to 21 in the Begova Korija camp in Krushevo. The campers were joined by 30 Peace Corps staff members and local Macedonian volunteers to serve as facilitators, counselors and support staff for the week. Over the course of 8 days, our campers experienced the great outdoors of sleeping in tents and even learning to prepare their own meals in the forest. Campers spent the entire week in small teams learning, competing and camping together. All teams were tested at the end of the week at the coveted YMLP Olympic Games where all teams competed in a series of water balloon sports and obstacles to crown a winner. This year, the DARK KNIGHTS led by Peace Corps Volunteer Kevin Young came out on top. In addition to games and team building activities, campers had the opportunity to learn about leadership, civic responsibility, ecology, employability and personal development. One of the highlights of the week happened when our campers completed a camp service project where they created trails in the woods for local hikers. To our alumni – we hope you’ll use the tracking step on your next adventurous step. We especially want to thank our corporate partners and donors Mermeren Kombinat, OKTA, SASA Mine, TAV, Alkaloid and Kromberg and Schubert Airports, ESM, EED, Horus as well as individual donors for providing the monetary donations to make the camp possible.
Service Projects at GLOW & YMLP camps 2019
Latest News Service Projects at GLOW & YMLP camps 2019 At camps, young men and women across the country are coming together and they participate in various activities like workshops on various topics, they have sports activities, they have employability fair, they have activities where they are developing deeper cross-cultural understanding among themselves – but they also have different outdoor activities, of which the volunteering aspect is predominantly stressed – and that is the service project done at camp. Our facilitators are responsible for designing and implementing the Project Design Module intended for campers to envision an idea for a service project at the camp, the to work through it, prepare the materials needed for executing the service project and finaly organize every little detail in order this to really happen. And, at this year we had several smaller service projects and one big. The several smaller service projects included mural painting with the camp logo in indoor camp facilities, painting and decorating several wooden palettes intended for holding vases with freshly planted flowers (for decorating outdoors of the camp facilities) and cleaning and painting with protective paint the wooden signals in the shape of arrows for marking of the camp grounds. The big service project was all about outdoors. The general idea was to gather all together and to clear an old shorter path through the forest, abandoned in the meantime, but leading to an open space in the forest that was used for activities. This spot was accessible, but from a longer half round path, used for other purposes. Then to put, before already prepared, long pieces of wood on the sides of the cleared path and to fix them in the ground, so they will stay there and basically give an outline of the forest path itself. And since this was a major thing, it was not possible to be done in one service project, so we did it in two phases – the first one at the YMLP Camp. and the other one at the GLOW Camp that was after the YMLP. The goal is to have good practice of the whole process – form idea to implementation of service activity that will be later reproduced in the clubs, with the purpose of doing this in a local community setting. All went well at the end and the path was cleared and marked! It is now ready for use for the camp facilities, but also for the other local people Mins near by. And of course, at the end be want to especially thank our corporate partners and donors: Mermeren Kombinat, OKTA SASA Mine TAY Airports, Alkaloid and Kromberg & Schubert ESM. EED. Horus as well as individual donors for providina the monetary donations to make the camp possible.
Wonderful days in Denmark 2019
Latest News Wonderful days in Denmark 2019 Wonderful Days is the biggest national event of YMCA and IVKA Denmark. It is a festival where in a period of 6 days more than 1000 participants and volunteers gather to have an amazing party together with guests from more than 10 countries. This year the event took place from July 8th to 13th. The goal of the event with all the workshops and discussions was clear to them – without action there is no reaction. We learned that we need to take responsibility for our actions, we need to take care of the environment because we are part of it and help build it right. We also learned that we don’t have to go with the flow and let things flow. These were some of the questions that were presented to us here. There were many open discussions, fun and physical activities related to the theme of the year. To illustrate, we played volleyball on the beach, sang and danced the night away in the performance tent, did yoga in the morning, played with fireballs, and had vintage prepared by the fire. It’s the perfect place to meet new friends from all over the world, challenge yourself and have fun for six days. All in all, we definitely had the best time of our lives. The beautiful days helped me to think about my actions, to think about the importance of nature and that I will continue to take care of everything that surrounds me.
