We continue to work for the empowerment of young people and their engagement in decision-making processes in the community. In this very important process for supporting and empowering youth, it is necessary to join parents and all frontline professionals who contribute every day to their education, empowerment and protection.
For this reason, during the months of December 2024 and January 2025, we had the opportunity to bring together psychosocial service workers in schools, child protection workers, teachers, police officers, parents and representatives of local organizations and discuss issues of child safety in schools and communities, the importance of school-family-community communication, techniques and methods that should be used by all professionals and families in the important journey of children and young people on the way to creating personality, their empowerment towards participation and their engagement as change agents and contributing citizens in society.
In the 2-day workshops organized with stakeholders were discussed the mentioned issues in in the municipalities of Dibra, Kukes, Fier, Shkodra, Lezha, Elbasan, Cërrik and Tirana. In all these workshops, we had the opportunity to share experiences and ideas with the participants on the empowerment and participation of children and youth in decision-making processes, as well as the importance of inter-institutional cooperation for the prevention of violence and crime among children and youth.
It was a special pleasure to organize these meetings in close collaboration with the State Agency for the Rights and Protection of the Child and to have the opportunity to expand our contacts and share not only concerns about these common problems but also solutions with 164 professionals participating in these workshops.
"Supporting children and young people towards participation is not just a task, but an investment for a safer and more inclusive future" - says one of the participants.
These workshops were part of the “Youth Voice for Justice and Rights” project, funded by the Austrian Development Agency.
