Bulgarian Memory Foundation (BGMF) is a non-profit organization founded in 2007 – the year of the Accession of Bulgaria to the European Union, working for and with young people. The Foundation has a great work experience with youth who are at risk of unemployment, marginalization and radicalization, coming from poor small cities and villages in the Southwestern and Northeastern regions of Bulgaria where they fall into the so-called disadvantaged category due to the economic and geographical reasons. Those young people are originated from families with low social status, living in the so-called mixed regions characterized with differences in ethnic and religious composition (as most of them are Muslims).
Bulgarian Memory Foundation (BGMF) is a non-profit organization founded in 2007 – the year of the Accession of Bulgaria to the European Union, working for and with young people. The program priorities of the Foundation are implemented in following main areas:
Bulgarian Memory Foundation is a member of:
The Foundation has a great work experience with youth who are at risk of unemployment, marginalization and radicalization, coming from poor small cities and villages in the Southwestern and Northeastern regions of Bulgaria where they fall into the so-called disadvantaged category due to the economic and geographical reasons. Those young people are originated from families with low social status, living in the so-called mixed regions characterized with differences in ethnic and religious composition (as most of them are Muslims).
The target group of the Foundation are mainly young people aged 15-24 years, in the transition of secondary to higher education and from higher education to the labour market. The specifics of the young people from Bulgaria is that they are mainly from small cities and villages in the Southwestern and Northeastern regions of the country and due to the economic and geographical reasons they fall into the so-called disadvantaged category. Young people are from families with low social status, living in the so-called mixed regions characterized with differences in ethnic and religious composition.
The Foundation has a wide network with schools, NGOs and representatives of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country.
More than 11 000 young people from Bulgaria and the region of South-eastern Europe and the Eastern Partnership countries have been trained thanks to the a number of projects and initiatives realized in partnership with national and European institutions, business sector representatives, non-governmental and academic organizations, and “Erasmus+” Programme.
Working for and with young people, at the period of their transition from secondary to higher education, BGMF prepares and implements projects within the Key Actions 1,2,3 of “Erasmus +” Programme with aims at:
As a result, the Foundation acquires in:
BGMF has a great experience as coordinator of the following Erasmus Plus projects:
1) 2015-1-BG01-KA105-013485, “Identity of the Young People in Europe”, aimed at contributing to the construction of a European identity and strengthening the European principles and values of solidarity, democracy, friendship, tolerance, responsibility, freedom and justice, which underpins the European project;
2) 2015-2-BG01-KA347-014475, “COMPASS”, aimed at influencing decision makers through improved communication policy towards young people and raising their level of awareness, orientation and motivation for development opportunities and active start – in higher education, employment and entrepreneurship;
3) 2015-2-BG01-KA347-022626, “Youth forum for entrepreneurship and demography”, aimed at influencing horizontal youth policy, by liaison of entrepreneurship, youth employment and demographic challenges through conduction of a structured dialogue with policy makers;
4) 2016-1-BG01-KA105-023018, “Tolerance and solidarity – a tool for overcoming stereotypes among youth” promoting the ability of young people to communicate and work in a multicultural environment;
5) 2016-1-BG01-KA105-023016, “Creating an entrepreneurial culture among the youth” aiming at: *Helping young people in acquiring entrepreneurial skills; * Guiding young participants in their career orientation by examining the entrepreneurship from the view point of business, NGOs and education structures;
6) 2017-1-BG01-KA205-035758, „EntrepreneurshipXchange through project-based learning”, КА2. The project created new methodology that can be used in project-based learning to promote youth entrepreneurial skills and used interdisciplinary approach in Project based learning fostering innovation in education promoting youth Entrepreneurship competences.
7) 2017-1-BG01-KA105-035519, “Fostering entrepreneurship and financial literacy for overcoming the youth unemployment”, aimed at tackling youth unemployment through acquisition of skills in the field of financial literacy and entrepreneurship.
8) 2017-2-BG01-KA105-036426, “Volunteering – a tool for increasing youth employment through developing skills”;
9) 2017-2-BG01-KA105-036428, “Social inclusion of the youth through entrepreneurship”, aimed at tackling social exclusion among youth through creating entrepreneurship skills and fostering their opportunities to participate in the public life;
10) 2017-2-BG01-KA105-036427, “Developing innovative, creative and analytical thinking as a factor for youth employment”, aimed at development of a number of skills facilitating young people’s adaptation to the labour market;
11) 2018-2-BG01-KA105-048128 “Increasing the employment rate among young people through development of digital skills” aimed at developing digital competences contributing to increased chances for youth employment and tackling digital and social exclusion of young people;
12) 2018-3-BG01-KA105-061001, “Increasing youth inclusion, intercultural and interreligious dialogue, the shared values of freedom, tolerance and respect for human rights in the context of overcoming radicalization and hate-based crime”, aimed at developing of respective social and civic competences through non-formal learning methods;
13) 2019-1-BG01-KA347-061600, “Forum: The Skills and Jobs of the Future – Young People’s Viewpoint for Better Education and Employment”, aimed at enhancing structured dialogue among young people and institutions on key issued of youth concern such as skills and jobs of the future, education and perspectives for employment;
14) 2019-1-BG01-KA105-061425, “Stimulating youth employment and connectivity between young people from the EU and the Western Balkans by acquiring business skills and career guidance for the jobs of the future”, aimed at the development of transversal, digital and business skills and competences among youth with a view to the labour market of the 21st century;
15) 2019-1-BG01-KA105-061486, „Enhancing critical thinking, sense of initiative and fundamental values among youth through development of media literacy, digital and civic competences “, aimed developing specific digital, media, social and civic competences through the methods of non-formal education.
16) 2020-1-BG01-KA105-078703 “Improved digital and sustainable future of young people in Europe through enhancing diversity and developing transformative skills and skills of the future“.
17) 2020-1-BG01-KA205-078892 „Finding strength in unity and sharing common values: PBL and Values-based learning“.
18) 2020-2-BG01-KA105-079095 “Forming an eco-mindset and initiative among youth“.
19) 2020-2-BG01-KA105-079338 „Creating media literacy and identity of young people in the Internet“.
20) 2020-2-BG01-KA105-079093 “Digital entrepreneurship and media literacy for young people“.
21) 2020-2-BG01-KA205-079309 “Social ecology – a model for sustainable European development in the 21st century“.
22) 2020-3-BG01-KA205-094720 “Basic economic and financial skills of youth for building an “economy that works for people”.
23)2020-3-BG01-KA105-094755 “Building skills for digital and entrepreneurial competences development and formation of European values among youth”.
24) 2020-3-BG01-KA347-094727 Youth conference: “Ecology for Health – the viewpoint of youth in the context of the challenges with COVID-19”.
The team of the Foundation, headed by its Chairman – Dr. Milen Vrabevski, awarded with the Citizen’s Prize of the European Parliament for 2013, is composed of motivated and creative people with great experience in the above mentioned fields. Bulgarian Memory Foundation has developed managerial, administrative and technical capacity, which has the following logic and management structure: action plan-responsible person-deadline-follow-up-analysis-feedback, based entirely on positive thinking.
“Association for Macedonian-Bulgarian Friendship” (AMBF) – Bitola, Republic of North Macedonia (RNM) was established as non-governmental organization in September 2009. Over the years of its existence, the association has been focused on realizing initiatives in 3 main areas:
1) Assisting young people in their educational and professional development and realization;
2) Involving the younger generation with pan-European cultural, historical and European values;
3) Preserving the traditions and customs of the ancestors; celebrating public holidays; orientation to projects and initiatives in the field of education and sports, science and culture and European integration.
“Association for Macedonian-Bulgarian Friendship” (AMBF) – Bitola, Republic of North Macedonia (RNM) was established as non-governmental organization in September 2009. Over the years of its existence, the association has been focused on realizing initiatives in 3 main areas:
1) Assisting young people in their educational and professional development and realization;
2) Involving the younger generation with pan-European cultural, historical and European values;
3) Preserving the traditions and customs of the ancestors; celebrating public holidays; orientation to projects and initiatives in the field of education and sports, science and culture and European integration.
During its work with young people and youth workers, AMBF has accumulated extensive experience in the following areas:
As part of its regular activity, AMBF:
1) Develops and implements intercultural awareness, education, and informal education. Good intercultural awareness practices implementation, using the universal language of sports.
2) Encourages and moderates meetings to identify the needs of youth groups that can be properly addressed through transnational and European projects.
3) Encourages entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial mind-set in line with EU priorities, reflecting the interests and needs of the target group. Creating an entrepreneurial culture and fostering economic and financial literacy through the methods of non-formal education, project-based learning and sports.
4) Encourages the generation of new project partnerships at national and international level. The principles of partnership are at the heart of most entrepreneurial initiatives and are rooted in the basis of entrepreneurship-related training programs.
5) Organizes training activities for developing entrepreneurship and initiative skills through sports.
The Association has its own structures in the following cities Probishtip, Kratovo, Kumanovo, Skopje and Ohrid.
As part of its “Erasmus+” project participation, AMBF has successfully realized a number of initiatives that include sport activities as well. The Association has a rich experience in Erasmus+ project participation and implementation as a partner:
The team of the association is reliable and trustworthy partner. It is supported by youth workers and young volunteers.
Association “GROUP OF THE LIBERAL, AMBITIOUS AND SOLIDARY”, with the abbreviated name “GLAS” is a voluntary, non-governmental civic association, which was established on February 20, 2013 aiming to achieve its goals in the field of: culture, information / publishing, non-formal education, economy, tourism, ecology, health, sport, youth work, etc.
ASSOCIATION “GLAS” – Bosilegrad
Association “GROUP OF THE LIBERAL, AMBITIOUS AND SOLIDARY”, with the abbreviated name “GLAS” is a voluntary, non-governmental civic association, which was established on February 20, 2013 aiming to achieve its goals in the field of: culture, information / publishing, non-formal education, economy, tourism, ecology, health, sport, youth work, etc.
We specialise in the field of human and minority rights, thinking that here are our greatest difficulties. We consider as one of our most important activities the efforts to improve information dissemination and its importance in general for the promotion of the values of civil society. The main purpose of our work is to try to preserve and develop the cultural identity of the Bulgarian national minority on the territory of the Republic of Serbia.
“GLAS” Association is the founder of “GLAS PRESS” – a media portal www.glaspress.rs in Bulgarian and Serbian, officially registered at 25. 01. 2017 in the press register at the Economic Registers Agency of the Republic of Serbia. Through a variety of rubrics in a fast, effective, and professional way, we publish the most important news from Bosilegrad and the cities where people belonging to the Bulgarian national minority live. Besides the written articles, reports, interviews, curiosities and photographs, the desire of the team of the portal is in the future to be an internet base for the most important information from different areas of our minority’s life, as well as for all citizens, regardless of national and religious differences. We continue to be a platform that is open to developing the ideas of non-governmental organizations, individuals and informal groups on various topics – ecology, non-formal education, preservation of culture and traditions.
Along with the information activity, “GLAS” Association constantly tries to develop and build on various cultural and educational and humanitarian initiatives. In recent years, we have regularly participated in various European projects, mostly within the “Erasmus+” Programme. As a tradition and a continuous initiative of ours, it is worth mentioning the International Children’s Easter Festival in Bosilegrad, which is organized by our association and is due next year for a 30th anniversary.
In recognition of the many years of work in the organization of the festival, for the preservation of traditions and customs, for love and tolerance, the INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S EASTER FESTIVAL has lined up next to the best European festivals and received the EFFE quality label for 2015 and 2016. The EFFE quality label is part of the European Commission’s initiative – Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe (EFFE) – www.effe.eu, run by the European Festivals Association (EFA). Find out more here: www.festival-bosilegrad.info
We in the GLAS Association are convinced that by enabling active participation and sharing of ideas on all important issues with free and conscious young people, we can guarantee a new, unburdened generation. We hope that this is a good basis for future initiatives in which we will enter even more confident and prepared.