NGO Closer to Youth

The project is dedicated to youth organisations in Poland maintained by young people aged 15–29 and to NGOs that realise at least 80% of their actions in favour of young people. It aims to strengthen the competencies of the people managing them and teams included in the decision-making process.

The project is concerned with strengthening areas such as transparency, marketing, including people with fewer opportunities, and digital transformation. Building strong youth organisations gives a lot of opportunities for young people to develop their socio-professional competencies through participatory, leadership, coordination, and volunteer activities. We strive for youth and their needs to be a part of development processes in youth organisations. There will be 8 organisations qualified for the project in 2024 and 6 in 2025. Participation in the project is free. 

Activities to be undertaken in the project:

• internal audit to verify the current state of the organisation (4h/org);
• meetings analysing the process of managing the organisation (4h/org);
• development coaching for management and decision-makers (6h/org);
• workshops motivating to change and development (2h – group workshops);
• workshops on transparent operations in the third sector (5h/org);
• workshops on increasing the marketing potential of the organisation (8h/org);
• workshops to enhance the digital competence of teams and digital accessibility in the organisation (5h/org);
• workshops on inclusion of disadvantaged groups (2 groups, 8 hours each);
• “train the trainers” workshops – preparing educators to run workshops and youth training (8h/org);
• testing and implementing new tools under the supervision of an expert (3h/org);
• 2 online networking meetings for the project beneficiaries.

Activities open to beneficiaries and other NGOs in 2025:

• “Be transparent” contest about transparency practices in the third sector, aimed at organisations working with and/or for young people.
• Conference “Transparency in the third sector” Trends, challenges, opportunities – summary of the project, award of the competition and promotion of good practices
• Brochure – i.e. how to build stakeholder trust based on simple methods of transparency in operations and finances. Practical advice, solutions and ideas.

What we do during the project:

• implement improvements in the operation of 14 youth organisations in Poland;
• increase the self-management of the youth organisation by the entities involved in the project – more efficiency = more qualitative and long-term activities;
• increase the qualification of managers aware of the needs of the target groups of their activities;
• increase digital and marketing skills of people involved in building youth NGOs;
• launch a competition and initiate a public debate on the transparency of the third sector in Poland;
• hold the first NGO transparency conference in the region;
• educate trainers and educators and sensitise them to the needs of people with fewer opportunities.