Why

Balkan regional platform for youth participation and dialogue aims on increasing awareness on youth participation, youth activism and the possibilities of young people creating and influencing the policies closely related to them. One of the goals of the Platform is to improve cooperation and the coordination between Civil Society (CS) and the public authorities with the active participation of youngsters, through the creation Regional Network for Local Democracy. Easing youth activism and participation and raising the awareness of local authorities, policy and decision makers, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and youth leaders in targeted countries on EU standards, policies and practices on youth participation is the main scope of every activity within the platform. Open dialogue between youth and stakeholders in their communities but also in Balkan region countries is the main objective and position of youth, which the creation of the platform seeks to achieve.

How

The creation of the platform through planned activities organised and implemented at grassroots, national and regional level, aims at favouring participation and social inclusion of youth, particularly underrepresented youth with fewer opportunities. Fundamental for this is the experience and expertise of ALDA and the Balkan LDAs with the ability to achieve capacity building and enhanced networking of the youth within the platform. Almost 20 years of experience of the partners in local democracy and open dialogues on European level was used into designing this program tailored specifically as sprout of self-sustainable network with strong dissemination, all with the goal of achieving increscent of youth participation with EU standards.

Activities
The activities of this Platform could be easily divided into three categories:

 - Activities appointed towards enhancement the network;
 - Regional activities;
 - Local activities;

Starting with the activities which are constant and ongoing, appointed towards the enhancement of the network, such as steering group meetings, foundation of specific teams, research and comparative analysis, capacity building trainings, and know-how transfer of positive practices, the platform grows base for further enlargement.
The Regional activities, common for all partners in the project aim at awareness raising and visibility as one of the objectives, are mainly focused on campaigning and informative actions. Study visits, newsletters on the activities, online campaigns, social media channels activities and roots for advocacy and lobbying on local level with authorities. The regional activities are as well with focus on exchange of good practices among region countries
The local activities, implemented in each participating community will be organized by LDAs and their associate public authorities annually, in order to keep their relevance for youth target groups and final beneficiaries. These activities have the goal to create the path for opening dialogues on local level through mutual organization of the actions by local youth in coordination with the local authorities.