Youth Alert 2.0: Youth Councils Shaping the Region Together

Youth Alert 2.0: Youth Councils Shaping the Region Together is a regional project led by Mreža mladih Crne Gore, which aims to strengthen Youth Alert as a regional structure for youth cooperation in the Western Balkans.

The project is focused on strengthening coordination, joint advocacy, visibility, and internal functioning of national youth umbrella organizations in the region. Its purpose is to move the existing cooperation between youth councils and networks from occasional and informal communication to a sustainable, structured, and participatory model of regional cooperation.

Through the project, practical mechanisms for joint youth action at the regional level will be developed — from better management and coordination to joint advocacy responses, knowledge exchange, and more visible representation of youth interests in processes important for the Western Balkans.

The project is implemented from July to December 2026, through activities in Montenegro, Serbia, and online. Mreža mladih Crne Gore acts as the lead applicant, while project partners are youth umbrella organizations from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Albania.

Within the project, a Regional Strategic Governance Retreat is planned in Montenegro, which will bring together representatives of youth councils and management experts with the aim of developing and confirming practical mechanisms for coordinating the Youth Alert platform. One of the key results will be the creation of a Governance Charter and an Operational Toolkit, documents that will help make regional cooperation clearer, more organized, and sustainable.

Another important activity is the Youth Alert Regional Advocacy Simulation Lab in Serbia, through which young representatives of youth councils will work on simulations of joint advocacy, regional responses, communication procedures, and positioning youth topics in the regional context.

The project also foresees the development of a digital Youth Alert Knowledge & Coordination Hub — a shared online space for documents, tools, materials, conclusions, templates, and resources that will help Youth Alert platform members communicate more easily, collaborate, and continue joint work even after the project ends.

Through a regional visibility campaign, the project will promote Youth Alert, support from RYCO, regional youth cooperation, and the role of youth umbrella organizations in representing youth interests across the Western Balkans.