Youth Cultural Center – Bitola (YCC-Bitola) is non-profit youth association founded in 1999. Our mission is to unite and develop the creative potentials of young people and to encourage civic activism.
Long term goals of YCC-Bitola is to promote volunteering, to promote non-formal education for youth, to develop democracy and civil society and to support urban culture. We work on 5 strategic priorities:
1. PROMOTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF VOLUNTEERING
• To encourage sustainable development of Volunteer Center of North Macedonia (VCNM);
• To promote volunteering and volunteering values;
• To contribute in enabling environment for volunteering in North Macedonia;
2. BUILDING OF CAPACITIES, KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND MOBILITY OF YOUNG PEOPLE THROUGH NON-FORMAL EDUCATION
• To improve competences of youth for their employability
• Partnership building and networking
3. DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY, EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND CIVIL SOCIETY
• To encourage youth participation, especially in the creation and improvement of youth policies and programs
• To develop civic activism and participatory democracy
• To contribute to rule of law through monitoring of state/local institutions in implementation of strategies, action plans and budgets
• Free legal aid and socio-economic support of vulnerable citizens at the local level
4. SUPPORT AND DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN CULTURE
• To promote urban culture and intercultural understanding
• To promote UNESCO values
• To organize Bitola Open City Festival
5. ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF YCC-BITOLA
• To make the organization sustainable on long term
• To improve the effectiveness of the organizations’ work
• To build the capacities of personnel, members and volunteers
• To improve the cooperation with the business sector
YCC-Bitola has extensive project management experience through realization of various projects supported by different national and international funds, including EU IPA funds.