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In South-eastern Anatolia, there are presently 9 “Youth Houses” in provinces of Adıyaman, Batman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Kilis, Mardin, Siirt, Şanlıurfa and Şırnak.

Rationale

The rationale behind youth houses is to provide local youth environments where they can develop as active citizens and are supported in their personal, social and educational development. The idea is to make these environments youth-friendly and encourage a sense of belonging as the first step in. Youth is the hand of societies reaching out for future and, at the same time, most their most active and changing dynamism. It is desired that youth gain a satisfactory world outlook, get together with the vision that there is a much larger world around and build sensitivity to ongoing social events.

Target Group

The target group of the project consists of youth in the age group 15-30 and those working in the field of youth. Target groups of specific programmes are as fallows: 

• Start your business programmes: potential young entrepreneurs.

 Objectives

• Completing the process of institutionalization of youth houses, turning them into platforms on which local activities and initiatives take place and ensuring flow of information between local youth organizations and national and international organizations,

Building youth houses as environments where youth learn no how to use their time efficiently, feel themselves at home in social terms and develop as active individuals.

Organization of Youth and Culture Houses

The project is being implemented by the GAP-RDA with the support of Governorates.

Activities Carried Out in Youth and Culture Houses

Under the project, “capacity building”, “social and cultural development”, “employment” and “social sensitivity” programmes are implemented. 877.482 young persons have been reached through these programmes between May 2001-October 2020.

1) Capacity Building Programmes

This programme aims at training young people in areas they need most and improving their skills to express themselves better.

• Participation to national and international training programmes

2) Social-Cultural Programmes

The basic objective of these programmes is to help young people utilize their leisure time more efficiently, learn and gain innovative vision while having fun and to consolidate social ties among youth.

• Youth Festival

3) Employment Programmes

These programmes are geared to planning and implementing activities that will facilitate the employment of or new business start ups by young people.

• E-coaching

4) Social Sensitivity Programmes

The objective of these programmes is to impart in youth the sense of conscious citizens participating to voluntary work. In other words, it is geared to encouraging young people to take part and contribute to the activities of central and local government, private and non-governmental organizations.

The Gains Obtained

This project is both planning and implementing by youth. So that, youth felt self-confidence and started to take initiative. Also the project have empowered their relations of youth with people.
Some achivements in during implementation of the project:

• It was presented as one of the best 23 projects that attending  from Turkey, in World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002)
• The most successful one of the six projects, (The Global Youth Forum (UNEP), Denmark, 2002)
• One of the best 150 projects in World Water Forum 3. (Kyoto, 2003)
• Millennium Youth Award to Mardin Youth and Culture House [By the National Association of Commissions for Women (NACW)]
• The project started as the first youth work in the Southeastern Anatolia. With this project, tens of youth organisations have established and done hundreds of youth works.
• In 9 provinces applied project  was established associations.