INTERNATIONAL TIMELINE
• January 2002: First international partnership agreement with PRONI in Bosnia – Brcko, Doboj and Travnik; Croatia – Osijek and Vukovar supported by The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland..
• June 2002: PRONI YouthBank development in Serbia – Novi Sad and Subotica and Macedonia – Skopje and Tetovo supported by The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland.
• June 2004: PRONI YouthBank development in Montenegro – Podgorica, supported by The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland.
• September 2005: New partnership formed with the Eurasia Foundation in the South Caucasus to set up and deliver YouthBank training and support in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
• December 2005: Northern Ireland YouthBank Board members travel to Jericho, to help set up first YouthBank in Jenin, West Bank, Palestine.
• October 2006: First YouthBank set up in Cluj Napoca, Romania with support and training from YouthBank Ireland
• April 2007: Visit of Azerbaijan YouthBank to Belfast, Derry and Longford.
• June 2007: YouthBank workshops held in Russia and Bulgaria with country-wide associations of Community Foundations.
• July and October 2007: Establishment of YouthBank in Armenia and Georgia with the Eurasia Partnership Foundation.
The benefits arising from youth-led grant-making as developed by YouthBank has attracted the interest of organisations operating in a wide range of countries.
Keen to instigate similar initiatives in their own jurisdictions, these agencies have approached us to assist them, which where possible, we have been delighted to do.
The pages in this section provide short sketches of a selection of the bilateral work that has ensued in:-
A recent review of our international work to date has led us to begin to explore the potential of establishing a formalised multinational youth-led grant-making network. We are eager to engage in dialogue on this topic with others who share our belief that great benefit could arise from such a network and encourage any interested parties to contact us.
Whilst our ideas concerning the nature of an international network of those interested in youth-led grant-making are not as yet in a fixed form, we see merit in it creating opportunities for training, development and exchange of relevant information, experience and good practise through activities such as:-
- running regular programmes of accredited training;
- organisaing multilateral exchange visits;
- convening conferences and seminars;
- brokering joint grant-making ventures;hosting an increasingly content rich interactive web site; and,
- encouraging and nurturing aspirational developments as identified by young grant-makers.