EU NEIGHBOURS. During an online ceremony on 24 March, the European Commission announced the winners of the EU4Youth Awards. Five EU4Youth projects won in different categories for their achievements in supporting young people in the Eastern Partnership region. Next to it, 15 EU4Youth Award winners were announced – outstanding EU4Youth programme graduates, who, in spite of challenging circumstances, changed their own lives for the better and benefitted their communities with EU4Youth support.
Following a combination of public and jury voting, the EU4Youth Social Impact prize was awarded to the following five award winners:
- Nona Khachatryan from Armenia
- Sada Guseinova from Georgia
- Gevorg Afrikyan from Armenia
- Yulia Sukharevska from Ukraine
- and Vitaly Parfenov from Belarus
These outstanding EU4Youth programme graduates will be enrolled in the EY SkillUp Your Future programme, offering tailor-made individual counselling until December 2021 to further grow their skills.
The ceremony was held during the EU4Youth Event, which brought together young leaders, national and European policy makers, and civil society representatives to celebrate the EU4Youth programme’s achievements in the region, and to debate the post-2020 EaP agenda.
On this occasion, the programme also released its achievements report to celebrate its successes in providing opportunities for young people in the Eastern Partnership region by helping and assisting them individually, but also in working on a more systemic level through policy dialogue with national authorities.
Since the launch of EU4Youth programme in 2018, almost 18,000 young people have participated in competence development activities, and over 2,500 young people received professional mentorship. The vast majority of the beneficiaries (86%) agreed that participating in the programme’s activities has increased their confidence to find a job. Moreover, 292 young entrepreneurs received financial support for creating their own start-ups through micro-grants awarded by the programme. The full report is available here.
In addition to the presence in a virtual conference room, the EU4Youth Event and the ceremony were streamed live via Facebook, having collected more than 6,000 views during the first few hours only.
If you missed the event, you can still access and watch the official event opening, discussions on the youth work in times of the COVID-19 pandemic and the EU4Youth Awards ceremony.
Photo: European Union
