YouthBank Black Sea Conference will kick off in Yerevan

Yerevan, Armenia - On 15-16 October a Conference “YouthBank: Creating an enabling environment for youth civil society in the Black Sea Region” will gather  40 young people and youth coordinators from the Central and Eastern Europe, USA and South African Republic in Yerevan. The conference is implemented by Foundation for Youth Involvement (FIT) Romania, YouthBank International Foundation; Eurasia Partnership Foundation (Armenia) with the support of Black Sea NGO Forum, FOND Romania, the European Commission and Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation.

Media representatives are welcome to cover the event on October 16th from 11.00 to 13:00 at Eurasia Partnership Foundation premises, Azatutyan 1/21 apt 23, Yerevan.

The conference will focus on how the YouthBank program contributes to the emergence and consolidation of an enabling environment for Civil Society in the Black Sea Region. The Conference is aimed to build a regional network of organizations implementing the YouthBank Program in the Black Sea Region as well as to build wider connections to partners in Central and Eastern Europe and the US.

Finally, the proximity of the 2016 Black Sea NGO Forum to the dates of the Conference, reinforces the importance for civil society cooperation and dynamics for regional development.

YouthBank is a youth-led grant-making programme hosted by a local organization, which channels money into projects that will improve the quality of life of local communities. It is also a process and way of working with young grant-makers that encourages and trains them as they develop essential life skills as well as increase their employability capabilities. Local YouthBanks are run by young people for young people wherever they are. YouthBank is unique in that it puts money directly into the hands of young people who decide on how it will be spent. Young people are supported by adults but they make their own decisions as to what projects they choose to carry out and how the money they have is spent. YouthBank members develop many skills including communications and strategic thinking as well as self-esteem and team spirit.

Please contact to Lilit Arzoyan for more details email: [email protected], tel: +374 96 22 00 54 or +374 93 25 15 91.

This meeting is part of the follow-up activities of the 8th edition of the Black Sea NGO Forum, organised by the Romanian NGDO Platform – FOND, with the financial support of the European Commission, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in partnership with UNDP Regional Center for Europe and Central Asia, and CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness – CPDE.

The full text of the announcement is available under the following link.