In the period 23-30 April, Volunteers Center Skopje, represented by Vasko Joshevski, was a partner in the project “Impact Lab”, a capacity building seminar for youth organizations interested in long-term cooperation, with a focus on quality and strategic impact, hosted by Noored Ühiskonna Heaks, in Viljandi, Estonia.

During the seminar, 29 project coordinators and youth workers from  Estonia, Cyprus, Austria, Croatia, Iceland, Greece, Lithuania, Romania, Spain, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Turkey, Denmark, Czech Republic and Macedonia had a unique chance to share their youth work experiences and to develop long-term partnerships for future joint projects.

The seminar aimed at providing organisations active in youth work an opportunity to enhance their managerial capacities and to foster future co-operation and joint projects, through achieving the following objectives:

• getting to know each other and creating creative learning and working environment
• sharing of realities of youth and youth work in the regions of Europe that we represent
• in-depth presentation of all participating organisations, including their values, mission, target groups and desired impact on society
• sharing of good practices and tools in youth work, with a focus on impact, quality and visibility
• reflection and capacity-building on how to achieve and measure quality, visibility and impact in our work
• presentation of Erasmus+ and other funding opportunities and support structures
• fostering of partnerships and projects with a focus on long-term co-operation and strategic impact
• ensuring a strong dimension of transfer of competences and learning points after the international meeting, as well as a widespread dissemination and multiplication of the results.

Also, during the seminar the participants visited several youth centres in the Viljandi region and had a chance to learn more about the high quality level of the conditions and work of such centres in Estonia. The workshops and sessions of the seminar were delivered using very creative and professional approaches by the trainers of the seminar, which certainly contributed to enhancing the skills and competencies of the participants for working with youth in their local communities, as well as for working in international projects.

“Impact Lab” was a most valuable experience for Volunteers Center Skopje, as it resulted with expanding our partnership network with new European partner organizations interested in long-term cooperation, and upgrading our capacity for delivering quality results in our Erasmus+ projects.