Young People from Prilep Mobilized to Make the Youth Centre Reality

The Youth Council of Prilep, organized an Info Day at the Old Bazaar in Prilep on 20 December 2022, in order to influence awareness raising with the young people, as well as policy makers, about their increased responsibility and transparency in the local community. This event is part of their project “Be a Creator of Your Autonomous Zone – Youth Centre”.

Although intended for all citizens, this event had a special focus on the young people, because they have the biggest need of opening a Youth Centre. The Info Day was organized to enable more engagement by the citizens, encourage bigger involvement of the community, as well as its mobilization in demanding political responsibility and transparency from the elected representatives and reminding the local government about their promises.

The volunteers of the Youth Council Prilep and the community mobilizers used the Opinion Boulevard method, with visibly placed boards, where the young people had the opportunity to give their opinion about their perception if local government actions towards opening a Youth Centre are satisfactory and if they consider that they are being implemented. The young people also had the possibility to give their opinion on what type of activities and services should be offered by the Youth Centre.

“The Youth Centre is needed by the young people so that they can spend part of their free time in an interesting and creative way. The Youth Centre in Prilep was promised by the Mayor, but it has not been fulfilled yet”, said Andrej Tosheski, a community mobiliser.

“As young people, we have interests and we want to share these interests, network with other people. A place where we can talk about our favourite books and films, a place where we will play video games, share ideas, thoughts, a place where there will be concerts, etc. This is what we need. That is why we are here today, to raise the awareness of the young people and the local authorities, that is, to show the young people that we have the future in our hands and that everything depends on us. Therefore, let us fight for the Youth Centre to become a reality”, said Maria Dimitrioska, a community mobiliser.

This activity directly mobilized 70 young people from the Municipality of Prilep, and indirectly around 100 citizens. The Youth Council of Prilep summarized the opinions and perceptions of the young people as recommendations; after the implementation of the other two Info Days which will be conducted in January 2023, they will be translated into a Position Document which will be submitted to the Mayor and Municipal Council and publicly promoted on the web pages of the Youth Council of Prilep and Radio Plus.

The implementation of the Infor Day of the Youth Council of Prilep is enabled by the project Support to Electoral Reforms in North Macedonia of the Swiss Government, implemented by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (ИФЕС), while the grants are administered by the Macedonian Center for International Support (MCIC).