Tuzla Communtiy Foundation implements the Youth Bank Project since 2004. Apart from building capacities of young peple and motivating youth to actively participate in the community development, Youth Bank Tuzla has special purpose to involve young people int he decison making process within the Foundation. Management Board of Tuzla Community Foundation delegated Youth Bank Committee to distributes grants to youth groups in Tuzla, who want to improve status of young people in the community through implementation of differerent activities for common benefit. The maximum amount of the grant that could be given to either formal or nonformal youth group is 700 KM.
This is the way how Tuzla Community Foundation develops youth philanthropy and motivates young people to look for and find new financial resources – from goverment, non-goverment or business organisations – besides the initiative means given by Youth Bank. Youth Bank also motivates young people to take initial steps and make changes in their communities. It teaches them how to create an application letter, and implement and evaluate all the work.
Members of Youth Bank Board are young people, who are being trained to do need assesment, identify problems and potentials of young people, createcriteria and rules that determine how the grants will be approved, make decisions together and systematically, communicate with applicants, and share the credit together for the realized idea.
Youth Bank Committee has task to distribute funds in transparent and in fair way, promoting youth activism and volunteering. Following indicators tells how the Youth Bank Project in Tuzla was vey successfull project in the period from 2004 to June 2009:
1. Youth Bank Tuzla received 126 youth project proposals/applications through 11 application cycles, out of which 72 projects were approved ( more than 50% );
2. Although the maximum grant amount is 700 KM, more than 40.000 KM were distributed for support of the youth projects in Tuzla, and all of them contribute to increase youth activism and volunterism in the community;
3. Youth Bank Tuzla covered 20 local communities (Mjesne zajednice) with its work;
4. The projects supported by Youth Bank involved more than 2100 direct users, and the same number of indirect users;
5. Youth Bank Tuzla involved more than 90 young people into its education program, and all of them were directly involved into decision making process within the Foundation and its Youth Bank Committee;
6. Youth Bank Tuzla had more than 60 media performances, in which young people were directly involved;
7. Youth Bank supported many different activity spheres that young people take part in ( sports, culture, art, alternative art, social work, infrastructure, publishing, education programmes, ecology, disease prevention );
8. Youth Bank motivated businesses or local community to become the part of many projects;
9. Youth Bank is the first project that managed to “put” power into the hands of young people, because only they know what needs young people have.
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