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Description
Young refugees in Croatia face numerous challenges when it comes to their inclusion in the community and don’t have adequate support through integration policies. On the other hand, the local community is not inclined to civic engagement through volunteering and there is a need to educate it in the context of human rights. The project aims to develop civic awareness and engagement of the local community and increase solidarity and their knowledge of human rights in the context of migration and refugees. On the other hand, through increased engagement we want to contribute to the social inclusion of young refugees through the development and implementation of social mentoring programs. The project we are proposing is essentially a volunteer program through which local volunteers are educated to become mentors to young refugees, and the competencies of both groups are strengthened in terms of human rights of young refugees. The methodology we are developing builds on the existing program we are implementing, and the whole model is an innovative way of including young refugees by activating local citizens to volunteer in youth work with young refugees and as such serves as an alternative to existing classic integration models that are not tailored to this specific group. The program we are developing will be possible to use after the end of the program because we will share the results, and the main result is the development of a methodology that can be used by other organizations, with relevant organizations and actors. The results are applicable to other target groups, such as young people from alternative care and other local communities outside Croatia, as all EU countries face the same challenge of integrating young refugees into society.