EU4Youth hosts Youth Organisations Forum in Georgia

On 18 November, the ‘EU4Youth: Youth Engagement and Empowerment’ project hosted the Youth Organisations Forum in Tbilisi, bringing together around 30 youth NGOs and more than 100 participants.

The forum opened with speeches delivered by Maria Stogova, Team Leader for Governance and Human Capital at the EU Delegation to Georgia, and Sandra Schenke, Country Director of GIZ. Both speakers highlighted the role of youth CSOs in building resilient communities and expressed their hope for the continued development of meaningful youth work in Georgia.

The event featured a panel discussion with representatives from three community centres in Tetritskaro, Bolnisi, and Tsnori. Lasha, Lusine, and Keti – three young leaders – shared the obstacles they face in establishing and sustaining community centers. They spoke about maintaining motivation, enthusiasm, and commitment while working in small municipalities with diverse groups of young people, including NEETs, persons with disabilities, IDPs, and ethnic minorities.

To conclude the conference, five youth NGOs presented their success stories – local-level projects developed from scratch, ranging from founding youth centres to organising youth cultural festivals that foster integration among young people of different ethnic backgrounds.

The Youth Forum also marked the closure of a six-month capacity-building programme for youth CSOs, which engaged more than 50 youth NGOs and 120 young people. The programme focused on organisational development, strategic communication, youth engagement, and access to funding. Training sessions were followed by a mentoring phase, and the main results were summarised during the forum on 18 November.

The Youth Forum was organised by Loalte LLC within the ‘EU4Youth: Youth Engagement and Empowerment’ project, funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and implemented by GIZ.