Young men’s initiative

About the program

Young Men Initiative (YMI) is a regional platform of organizations, convened by CARE International Balkans. It started as a project in 2006 and it is being implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Serbia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania.

It builds on CARE´s comprehensive and programmatic efforts to prevent interpersonal and gender-based violence as well as to promote gender equality in the region.

For over a decade, YMI has been targeting youth to build their knowledge and attitudes concerning gender equality, violence and healthy lifestyles and to decrease levels of all types of violence.

Since the beginning, over 10 000 high-school students from 130 communities participated in gender transformative programs that CARE implemented in cooperation with local partners. Over the years, we have cooperated with a variety of stakeholders and realized that there is an emerging need for embracing a joint approach toward this sensitive topic in the Balkans.

From 2007 to the present, Young Men Initiative (YMI) has been working to build more gender-equitable attitudes and behaviours amongst young men and decrease both violence by young men (against young women) and peer violence (violence by young men against other young men).

About the program phases:

Phase 1

During 2022 the Center for Research and Policy Making, in cooperation with CARE International Balkans, started to implement the project “Building healthy lifestyle habits of boys in Gostivar and Gjorce Petrov” with the support of the Netherlands Embassy in Skopje. Known as Young Men Initiative, this project has been successfully implemented in the region and now for the first time commences in Macedonia. The goal of the project is positively to transform the behavior of young men and boys for building tolerant societies and prevent peer and gender-based violence. In this initiative are involved the local government and local civil society organizations, which will mobilize young people aged 14-19 years to determine the priorities and participate in the creation of local policy for young people through educational workshops and campaigns in their community.

The project will improve understanding and awareness of violence as an expected component of Balkan masculinity by male youth participants, build capacities of youth civil society organizations and relevant government institutions, and deliver CARE’s approach by engaging young men and boys’ trough YMI methodology (Young men’s initiative), as youth led gender-based violence (GBV) prevention model.

Phase 2

Based on excellent results achieved during the first phase of implementation of Young Man Initiative on national level, in October 2023 CRPM began with implementation of the second phase of the project “Young Men Initiative in GBV Prevention in Macedonia”, extending the program to nine municipalities. The second phase involves the following municipalities: Skopje (municipality of Center, Gjorce Petrov and Gazi Baba); Tetovo; Ohrid; Shtip; Kavadarci and Negotino. The

overall goal of the project is to increase the acceptance of healthy, nonviolent, and gender-equitable lifestyles among youth men and women in Macedonia. Moreover, the project objective is to engage youth to be active participants in addressing gender-based violence by building the capacities of local youth NGOs by mobilizing up to 360 youth.