Bringing together young people from Greece and Kosovo, NextGen Balkans: Youth Cooperation Series creates a space to explore shared challenges, exchange perspectives and develop ideas for positive change. Jointly designed and implemented by Balkan Youth Cooperation and Building the Balkans, the programme promotes intercultural learning, dialogue and meaningful youth cooperation.
Across four thematic sessions, participants explore youth participation and democracy, digital skills and innovation, gender equality and youth empowerment, and climate action and environmental awareness. Each session combines expert and youth organisation contributions with interactive workshops, encouraging participants to reflect on challenges affecting their communities and explore practical responses.
The programme culminates in a Youth Lab, bringing together the different themes through an intensive co-creation process. Working in mixed teams from Greece and Kosovo, participants identify shared challenges, define target groups and develop structured proposals for youth-led initiatives.
The Youth Lab resulted in two key concepts: the Future-Ready Youth Employment Initiative, which combines a digital skills and career-readiness platform with an annual career summit, and the Cultural Heritage Dialogue Seminar, a proposed cross-border programme using dialogue, workshops and field visits to explore shared and contested cultural heritage.
By moving from discussion to action and initiative design, NextGen Balkans strengthens participants’ communication, teamwork, critical thinking and problem-solving skills while creating meaningful connections between young people from Greece and Kosovo. The programme also lays the groundwork for future joint projects, continued youth engagement and stronger regional cooperation.
