Youth4Values will continue through Bosnia Think Tank Center, a Sarajevo-based institution that gives the project a lasting home for youth participation, civic learning, research and dialogue. The centre has been established as a core project result. Our next task is to make it useful in everyday community life and strong enough to sustain its work beyond the original grant.
For a young person, continuity should be easy to recognize. There should still be someone to contact after a workshop, a place to develop an idea, a facilitator who can help, and a route to speak with the people who make local decisions.
This strategy is built around those practical needs. Keeping a website online matters, but so does answering the next message and helping a youth group take its next step.
Institutionalizing Youth Empowerment: Bosnia Think Tank Center
The long-term continuation of the Youth4Values project is anchored by the newly established Bosnia Think Tank Center in Sarajevo, serving as a permanent home for civic participation, policy research, and open dialogue. By transitioning from a sequence of short-term project activities to a stable organizational structure, the initiative ensures young people always have a dependable platform to develop ideas and connect with decision-makers.
Key Highlights & Organizational Foundations:
- Permanent Platform: Establishes a lasting institutional home for youth engagement, civic learning, human rights, and non-formal education beyond the initial grant period.
- Physical and Operational Base: Operates from dedicated workspace in Sarajevo under a no-fee premises agreement with BRAVO, providing core coordination without heavy overhead costs.
- Governance Framework: Governed by an Assembly, President, and Vice-President, supported by an 8-person International Advisory Council and a 6–8 member Youth Reference Group.
- Multi-Faceted Mission: Integrates democratic participation with broader initiatives in digital skills, green engagement, social innovation, and public policy research.
Delivering Impact Across Local Communities and International Networks
Building on an impressive legacy of 54 local activities and over 800 participant instances across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Montenegro, and Spain, the strategy establishes structured local and cross-border delivery channels. The focal point remains empowering young people—especially those with fewer opportunities—to address real-world community concerns.
Core Delivery Objectives & Outreach Plans:
- Year 1 Community Offer: Plans 12 interactive civic learning workshops, 4 youth-institution forums, 4 mentored youth-led initiatives, and 2 facilitator peer-learning sessions.
- Reaching Regional Communities: Prioritizes outreach to at least 4 communities outside Sarajevo to ensure accessible civic education across smaller municipalities.
- Target Participation Ambition: Aims to engage at least 180 distinct young people with 240 attendance instances in the first operational year, ensuring repeat engagement.
- Cross-Border Cooperation: Maintains an active partner network across all four project countries through bi-annual international learning exchanges and joint advocacy.
Evidence-Based Research and Practical Open Educational Resources
Youth4Values connects ground-level civic experiences with policy research to ensure youth voices produce meaningful responses from institutions. Simultaneously, the project’s tested multilingual learning tools remain openly accessible to educators, youth workers, and local civil society organizations.
Research Initiatives & Resource Allocation:
- Practical Policy Briefs: Releases 2 focused policy briefs annually addressing local participation barriers and issues identified during community forums.
- National Action Plan Tracking: Establishes a shared follow-up register to track institutional replies, commitments, and policy implementation stemming from national recommendations.
- Free Multilingual Toolkit: Keeps the Youth4Values toolkit available in 5 language versions (English, Bosnian, Spanish, Greek, Montenegrin) for free public reuse.
- Active Alumni Network: Maintains an opt-in network for past participants, providing ongoing opportunities to co-facilitate sessions, join dialogues, and mentor new initiatives.
Operational Strategy, Financial Sustainability, and Long-Term Horizon
To guarantee long-term viability, the strategy combines a balanced funding model with structured development horizons extending through October 2031. This phased roadmap balances institutional growth with rigorous financial risk management and inclusive practice.
Financial Roadmap & Phased Targets:
- Balanced Income Pipeline: Combines domestic grants, international funding, foundation support, and cost-recovered professional services to achieve financial self-sustainability.
- Phased 3-Year Plan: Focuses on core governance and capacity building in Year 1, consolidates regional delivery in Year 2, and evaluates network replication/branch models in Year 3.
- 5-Year Impact Ambition: Tracks long-term target metrics through 2031, aiming to reach 3,000 young people with 30% active involvement in concrete civic action.
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