EU4Youth: Georgian Youth Club Promotes Personal Growth
In Kutaisi, Georgia, the EU-funded youth club (SKYE) members have created a special space for peers, where, through a creative process, personal growth is stimulated. The youth of Kutaisi there can use their creativity and make art to explore their emotions and perceptions. The further development of their identities is the main goal of the European Union funded programs, since they believe that “investing in young people is investing in the future.”
The club for art lovers and self-explorers was established in the framework of the ‘PD Art Therapy’ project, run by Kutaisi SKYE club youth. Basing their practices on German experience, the project gives 16 young people living in Kutaisi a chance to learn new techniques of practical art and through it, define and develop their own interests, desires and priorities, thus learning more about themselves. Each week, two hour-long sessions are organized. The EU website reports that participants during these sessions “study different art therapy techniques, including paint on water, paint on sand, paint on glass, paint on canvas, creating bookmarks from polymer clay, moulding paraffin wax, creating laminate bookmarks, calligraphy and woollen work.”
By the time the project wraps up, participants will have more knowledge of their own priorities, interests, desires, and ultimately themselves. The development of youth can multiply the ways Georgia as a country can be developed. So, to keep going forward, youth club members plan to present the project to the local City Hall in order to ensure its continuation.
Implemented by World Vision, the SKYE clubs have been set up within the scope of the EU4Youth – SAY YES Skills for Jobs project. World Vision International is a humanitarian aid, development, and advocacy organization. Although it is an Evangelical Christian organization, it presents itself as interdenominational and also employs staff from non-evangelical Christian denominations.
EU4Youth was launched in 2017 in Eastern Partnership countries of the EU (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine), with a budget of €22.75 million, EU Investment being €20 million.
The SAY YES Skills for Jobs project has a three-year duration between 2018-2021, and a program budget of €1.53 million. The program aims to contribute to the (self-)employability of young women and men aged between the ages of 15 and 35 in Armenia and Georgia, particularly those with fewer opportunities and from the vulnerable groups. Within the framework of the project, a series of activities focused on education and training, advocacy and youth work are carried out, including event-based exchanges of practices and awareness-raising campaigns. Other four actions in brief ensure the practices of research, good practice reviews and target group mapping, multi-stakeholder development of advocacy for gender, capacity development programs for public institutions, and formal and non-formal educational programs.
In Georgia and Armenia, the project is implemented by World Vision Deutschland VE (DE) in partnership with the “Global Development” Fund (AM), Association "Anika" (GE) and the Georgian Farmers' Association.
By Nini Dakhundaridze