Shumen is undoubtedly rich in active young people and youth organizations, yet the city did not have an up-to-date and working strategy for the development and support of its youth. Inspired by examples from Europe, the team of Podobri Foundation launched an initiative to build a system and approach that encourages the active participation of young people in civil society and democratic processes at the local level. The aim of the project “Youth Changemakers” is to involve the youth of Shumen fully in policy making for themselves – to unite the youth and the decision makers in the municipality and to act in sync. The final result of this joint work is the creation of the new strategic document and the regulations implementing it – “Strategy for Youth Development on the Territory of the Municipality of Shumen 2025-2030” and “Regulations for Financing Youth Projects”

The preparation and implementation of the Strategy were led by two of the most authoritative experts on the topic of Youth Policy” in Bulgaria – Dr. Liliya Elenkova and Stefan Georgiev. The working group, which is the driving force of this project and is directly involved in the process at every level, was composed of active youth, representatives of organizations working with youth and the Municipal Administration. It had 25 members.

The website strategy.podobri.org contains all the materials resulting from the diligent joint work, as well as information about the members of the Strategy working group.

The Youth Changemakers project was implemented with the financial support of the European Union under the Erasmus+ programme.

Contract number – No. 2023-1-BG01-KA154-YOU-000150291 with the support of the Human Resource Development Centre. Partners of the project are Shumen Municipal Youth Council and Shumen Municipality.