Igniting our Mission in the West Balkans Initiative
From the 13th-16th of October, our representatives have been present at the West Balkan Initiative meeting, hosted by YMCA Kosovo. The program sessions were designed around the integration of the mission, and vision of the participating YMCAs from N.Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and Serbia – and the establishment of a bright and flourishing future together within our movement. Besides the representatives of the West Balkan Initiative, the meeting had several YMCA guests who gave their contributions to the program such as Claudia Kuhn from CVJM (YMCA Germany) with inputs on the Program Development, Paul Smillie from the YMCA Europe Movement Strengthening Initiative with inputs on Governance Improvement, Marius Pop from YMCA Europe Strategic Partnerships with inputs of the collaborations with the corporate sector, Tom Valentine from YMCA of the USA with inputs of the perspectives and support for the region in future and Andy from YMCA Europe Communications Team. The program offered an incredible opportunity to exchange good practices, meet the local youth leaders, and visit YMCA centers across the country including the new Camp Pjetershan. Our stay was in the city of Peja with sessions and lunches held at the local YMCA – an impressive multi-functional facility that accommodates a variety of training programs and youth-oriented sessions. It has been a great opportunity to provide an update on each movement on their development during the initiative and plans in light of the promising partnerships and potential future activities. It has been a great time to remember all the values, memories, and experiences that brought together the leadership of the West Balkans Initiative – continuing to focus their work on regional plans, future steps, challenges, and opportunities for the upcoming year. In terms of achievements, it is worth mentioning that new municipality spaces and agreements have been acquired by some YMCAs, each YMCAs revenue has increased throughout the initiative, new partnership projects (within the region and Internationally have begun), extra focus on not just the leaders but staff and board members has been given. With over 20 digital meetings (team and 1 to 1) plus study visits to all participating YMCAs this year the region is slowly growing and heading in the right direction- with still much work to be done. And the crown jewel of our trip – Camp Pjetershan – an impressive YMCA camp accommodating 70 young people and offering wonderful facilities like sports and training facilities, camp halls and offices, camp dorms, campfire site- a space that can be used for multiple outdoor-oriented activities and a fine example of local, national and international support for a project. We have been inspired by this meeting, awed by the resilience and determination of the team, and the individual work of every participating YMCA that is creating change in their communities – and we are grateful to be part of it.
YMCA Western Balkans Initiative Strategy
Initiatives that unite and call for a joint search for solutions in the interest of offering better quality and more sustainable programs for the youth of the region are always worthy of respect. In the last decade, the YMCA organizations in the Western Balkans developed with undiminished capacity and reached the level of offering quality program activities for the young people in the region. But the last 2 years with the Covid-19 pandemic have shown us a different reality and more or less brought out certain anomalies and shortcomings in the functioning of organizations. Although to some extent in similar or different levels of organizational development and context of action, the YMCA organizations from Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia in the spring of 2021 started joint online meetings with the aim of discussing the new normality that has been imposed on us and discussing the relationship of the organizational problems we are currently facing. So, as key areas in which we need to strengthen in the next period are the areas of good management, management structures, work on project-based activities, dependence on grants, weak sustainability of projects, weak coordination at the regional level and readiness to act with joint EU projects on larger project applications. In the several held joint meetings, in addition to realizing the challenges and the fields in which we need to act, we also worked on the preparation of joint project applications, during which we submitted two. The initiative continues with unabated dynamics in 2022, in which we hope that with the reduction of the pressure from the pandemic, we will finally be able to have meetings with physical presence. The “Western Balkans Initiative” also started with activities that include regional visits to partners. At the first physical meeting after a long time since the initiative started, all involved countries Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania met at the YMCA office in Kosovo. The connection between national strategies and how they fit together into a larger, Balkan narrative was discussed in more detail. We look forward to what this group will bring to the youth of the Western Balkans! You can see more photos from the meeting here.
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!
