Youth Center Bitola: 2024 by the numbers
In May 2023, the Youth Center was opened in Bitola, with the aim of providing a safe and inclusive space through various programs, activities and mentoring, where we aim to encourage personal development, cultivate leadership skills and create a sense of belonging among young people.
The Youth Center itself is managed by 3 youth organizations from Bitola, YMCA, Sfera International and MKC.
After a successful 2023, with a total of 2,651 beneficiaries and more than 200 activities held, the work of the youth center continued with even greater enthusiasm and desire for as many participants and activities as possible.
In relation to the 8 previously set specific goals of this center, program activities were offered that have been largely fulfilled. A safe space is provided where young people can spend their free time, develop their competencies, encourage their entrepreneurial spirit, promote healthy lifestyle habits, as well as raise environmental awareness, inform about opportunities for informal education, strengthen active citizenship and promote volunteering.
In the reporting period from January 1 to December 31, 2024:
4,469 beneficiaries were covered by over 300 different activities, many of which were held multiple times.
The activities were offered by youth workers or by different youth work providers, i.e. over 15 different youth work providers used the spaces of the Youth Center Bitola to carry out their activities.
The most visited topics were digital education, mental health, environment, youth participation and youth policies as well as entertainment/social activities.
We would like to highlight two program activities, led by the YMCA:
- The Digital Education Club is one of the most visited clubs in the center for the second year in a row, aiming to achieve greater digital literacy among young people, as well as
- The Peer School for Mental Health and Children, which with 60 peer educators, included around 2.000 participants in all schools in the Municipality of Bitola, as well as the Peer School against Peer Violence, which included around 170 participants from the high schools. The activities of this school continue in 2025, with a focus on students from primary schools in the Bitola.
The results of the work of the Youth Center Bitola in the period from January 1 to December 31, 2024 are proof of the commitment to continuous work and organizing activities aimed at the professional and personal development of young people in Bitola, as well as to encouraging their participation in making decisions that are important to them in their local community.
The success of the programs is evident mostly through the continuous increase in the number of visitors to the activities of the youth center, which in the annual period for 2024 has reached higher numbers than the total number of visitors in the previous 2023. This is the result of the organization’s commitment to promoting the Youth Center and increasing its recognition among young people.
The full annual report of the youth center in the Macedonian language is available on the Youth Center website.
