| Short profile: | The Youth Offensive Association is an organization of the Polish minority in Romania which has, from its establishment until the present, approached a variety of themes within the framework of different projects, the majority of them being directed toward the target group, the youth. According to the Statute. The organization;s aim is to represent the interests of the Polish community in Romania, and, in order to achieve this objective, the members and the collaborators of the organization have gotten different ethnic groups and age groups involved in projects meant to promote cultural diversity, community responsibility, decisional transparency in public administration.
As for the administrative area and citizen involvement in the decisional process, the Youth Offensive organization has several projects in collaboration with the Pro Democracy Association, the Association for the Defence of Human Rights Romania –APADOR-CH, as well as representation mandates with the Legal Resources Centre of the SOROS Network. Through the projects that have been carried out in this area, we have contributed to the elaboration of studies and researches regarding free access to public interest information, decisional transparency and secret information declassification procedures in the institutions that our volunteers , mainly students of the Political Science Faculty of the West University “Vasile Goldis” Arad, have worked with. The volunteering activities of a civic and intercultural nature that have been carried out through the projects of the Youth Offensive organization are officially recognized by the West University “Vasile Goldis” Arad as specialty internships.
Our organization has also been involved in several programs dealing with Corporate Social Responsibility.
In terms of youth mobility and activities of the Youth/Youth in Action program, our organization has been involved in a number of youth exchange programs and seminars in Italy, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland and Malta. The target group of this association is represented by young people, ages 16 to 27. Our organization views as a priority involvement in the activities of the Polish youth minority, especially, and in those of other ethnic minorities, in general. From its inception, the organization has taken it upon itself to carry out activities addressed to the local community, which has resulted in the closing of partnerships and protocols with a wide variety of NGOs and institutions, according to the specific project the organization wished to implement.
A board of 5 members who decides upon the fields in which the organization works, upon its partnerships and its strategy, provides the leadership of the organization. The members of the board are people deeply involved in the local realities. It is also important to mention that the organization also benefits form a group of external collaborators, people which contribute in its projects through coordination, consultation and other types of services. For instance, in terms of training, the association has a number of 10 licensed trainers and a group of 12 facilitators.
The Youth Offensive association is currently finalizing an EVS project, “Branding Europe – Celebrating Diversity”, which has involved a group of 14 volunteers for a period of 6 months. The conclusions of and the experience acquired in the aforementioned project enable us, due to the work mechanisms that we have developed in terms of volunteering programs, to approach this project. The organization has finalized another project, “Connecting Cultures – Building Europe”, in the year 2008, a project that has involved a number of 15 volunteers for a period of 6 months.
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