UP2YOUth Kick-off

Kick-off meeting

Youthfully Yours SK in cooperation with organizations Armenian Progressive Youth and Center for Intercultural Dialogue
are entering into a strategic partnership called Up 2 You(th)!

Representatives of 3 organizations actively working with youth met at a joint online meeting to officially launch the strategic partnership Up 2 You(th)!. The meeting began with a brief introduction of the partners. As the organizations have been cooperating for a long time, the focus was mainly on presentations of the latest activities and examples of good practice. The space was also used to share the challenges that organizations face in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, the shift of activities to an online environment, and the limited reach to young people.

This was followed by the official opening of the project led by project coordinator Ivan Rosa. The needs that the project addresses, and especially their regional and local dimensions, were recalled. Project goals, sub-goals, and expected results were summarized. Subsequently, the partners discussed the project indicators and the feasibility of their fulfillment given the pandemic situation. A substantial part was the summary and discussion of the tasks and responsibilities of individual partners.

After assigning new tasks and updating the redistribution of responsibilities, the partners focused on milestones and the updated project timeline. It was necessary to take into account, in particular, the events of recent months and the delay the project had experienced. The partners discussed pandemic mobility restrictions, lockdowns, as well as the military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan from autumn 2020. A new timeline was proposed and approved by the consortium.

In the next part of the meeting, the partners addressed the Project Application Evaluators' Assessment. Emphasis was placed on the identified weaknesses of the application and the related recommendations of the evaluators. The partners agreed on the need to revise the so-called Communication Plan, which will adjust the scope and frequency of disseminating project results and communication with relevant stakeholders. Tasks were also re-distributed to revise the Monitoring Plan, risk management, and Evaluation Strategy.

The rest of the meeting was dedicated to the next steps of the project, especially its initial phase. Grigor Yeritsyan from APY presented their survey concept, which will be implemented among young people in the communities of partner organizations as part of the activities. In brief, the partners also discussed a report and recommendation for local government, which should summarize the identified needs of young people. CID representatives, Nami Isaki and coordinator Besart Shabani, presented proposals for the project's visual identity and related promotional materials.

The end of the meeting was dedicated to Project Management. Ivan Rosa presented the tools that partners will use for coordinating their tasks, the platforms on which they will communicate, and the frequency of this communication.

The project is co-financed by the European Commission's Erasmus+ program, administered by IUVENTA - Slovak Youth Institute. The European Commission's support for the project's activities and outputs does not constitute an endorsement of the content, which reflects only the views of the partners, and the Commission is not responsible for any use of the information contained in the outputs of this project. 2020-2-SK02-KA205-002569