Newly elected members of Local Youth Councils will attend training

A series of training seminars for the members of the Local Youth Councils (LYCs) will take place between October 29 and November 3. Organised by the Ministry of Education and Youth in partnership with the UNICEF Office in Moldova, the courses will bring together young councillors from 30 settlements, selected by competition. The trainees will learn the basic working principles of a LYC, activity planning methods, basic elements of grant proposal writing, activity monitoring and assessment, advocacy strategies, etc. At the same time, the fresh councillors will draft activity plans for 2008, which will be co-financed by the Ministry. Based of the National Youth Strategy and the 2006 Declaration of the Youth Forum, the Education Ministry and the UNICEF Office in Moldova intend to ensure the sustainability of the existing LYCs and to create new ones. By 2009, in compliance with the recommendations of the Council of Europe, outlined in the European Charter of Youth Participation in Local and Regional Life, more than 90 percent of Moldova’s settlements must develop models of youth participation in the life of the community. Currently, there are 354 LYCs throughout Moldova.