The youth development initiative helps to create new methods and tools to empower young Macedonian to develop skills and enhance critical awareness to be an effective youth advocate in Bitola, to increase their awareness on the advantages of building positive leadership for personal and professional development, to be self-confident, find their identity, and to pursue their dreams.
The learning objectives of this program are:
- To ensure youth in Bitola learn different approaches to solving social and personal problems in the communities, to inform and raise awareness among youth about their own characteristics, benefits, values and factors that can help them have effective leadership role in grassroots community matters
- To engage youth and social workers to take a leadership role in organizing community based activities that promote positive lifestyles and care for environment
- To create an enabling environment for young people to get empowered by providing the tools necessary for their growth
- To ensure youth in Bitola learn how to cope with issues that may be affect their mental health and raising awareness on mental health
Since the start of the new youth development programs, we have received great feedbacks from the community. They have been satisfied and excited with our new approach in helping youth to becoming more active in their daily lives by promoting leadership and empowerment. When the local youth become engaged in learning activities, with others of different culture, they develop the skills needed to be an effective leader and an active citizen. SFERA, therefore, aims to empower and to engage everyone in the community through trainings and various innovative activities. We understand that youth, families, adults, organizations, and communities as a whole benefit when young people have a voice that is listened to, respected, and utilized. SFERA as a whole allowed youth the opportunities to develop in hope of having a direct impact in their lives.
Onward and Together We Grow
This program initiative was used as a tool to help youth around Bitola and other cities to build new methods and tools in developing their leadership skills and competences, to empower themselves, to focus on their mental health, to increase cultural awareness, and to help them create a sense of belonging and purpose within themselves. The organization ensured that youth learn different approaches to solving social and personal problems, to inform and raise awareness among youth about their own characteristics, benefits, values and factors that can help them have effective leadership role in grassroots community matter. This program was a series of workshops held weekly for five months for the local community. For the first four months, we focused on leadership, skills building through topics such as resume building (CV and cover letter), strategic networking, personal/self-branding, cultural awareness, time management, social media and job search, public speaking, communication skills, problem solving skills, LinkedIn and job search, and self-leadership. We then focused on mental health and the importance of learning some coping mechanisms to deal with stress, anxiety, and depression in the last month. Through these series of workshops, the community understood the causes of stress, anxiety, and depression. They were able to identify and challenge negative self-talk, develop techniques to reduce stress and anxiety, as well as how to practice mindfulness and meditation.
You can stop at the office at anytime if you are interested in any of the workshop below:
- Intro to Youth Development Workshop: focus on vision board and goal setting for the rest of the year
- Branding- self building: Personal self-building development, in order words, how to brand yourself and stand out. This training focuses on youth growth and development (personal or professional). We, at SEFERA, want to help guide youth through decision making, learning about your own growth, developing skills that will improve your employability skills, intercultural, gender norms, diversity and inclusion, youth work, mental health, and healthy lifestyle.
- Time Management: this workshop focuses on prioritizing your time, daily schedule, current and future goals
- Public speaking and communication: This workshop helps youth develop confidence and skills, and explore techniques for preparing and delivering talks. We explored different types of communication styles and ways to improve your communication skills.
- CV writing and Motivation letter: This workshop focuses on how to create or strengthen CVs, learn how to prepare for interviews, and what to include in motivation/cover letters.
- Social Media tools: We focus on most of the social media platforms, the how to, do’s and don’ts, and how to use social media to your own advantage, how to create awareness, and increase &
capture their audience. - LinkedIn and Networking: the workshop focuses on strategic networking and networking etiquettes. The workshop also focused on LinkedIn as a tool that can strengthen their CVs and a great tool when searching for new career opportunities.
- Coping with Stress, Anxiety, and Depression – Depression workshop: this workshop helps youth discover how they can deflect and self-manage unwanted and prolonged negative feelings and emotions so they can have a happy and healthy life.
- Coping with Stress: This workshop focuses on learning some coping mechanism to deal with stress
- Coping with Anxiety: This workshop focuses on coping strategies to deal with anxiety