Building resilience of youth towards criminal activities

Organized crime thrives on exploiting the vulnerabilities of youth, and this project is dedicated to not only understanding the push and pull factors that contribute to their recruitment but also providing a clear path for intervention and support. Addressing the root causes of youth involvement in crime and promoting collaboration between key stakeholders, such as police, sports organizations, media, and youth-focused NGOs, the project aims to create long-lasting changes in how societies protect their younger generations. 

 

The project also seeks to transform the relationship between youth and law enforcement. In many communities, distrust of the police remains a barrier to effective crime prevention. Fostering stronger connections between youth and the police, the project aims to build a sense of mutual respect and cooperation, ultimately reducing the appeal of organized crime.

 

 

Specific Objectives

1. Improved understanding of push and pull factors for recruitment in criminal activities through conducting research among elementary and high school students through two researches. 

2. Strengthening capacities of police, sport clubs, journalists and youth NGOs for building resilience of youth. 

3. Building trust between youth and police.

 

The project aims to contribute to the development of desk research in Albania, Montenegro and Serbia for a better understanding of the level of involvement of young people in criminal activities, as well as the push and pull factors through available documents, to strengthened the capacities of law enforcement agencies, journalists, etc and to realise the survey in school to gather evidence on the attitudes and level of information among young people, providing insights into their environment and identifying the key factors that contribute to their involvement in criminal activities, as well as factors that protect their integrity.

 

The project “Building resilience of youth towards criminal activities”, leaded by NGO Juventas in partnership with Nisma ARSIS in Albania and Belgrade Centre for Human Rights in Serbia, supported by the Regional grant of the “SMART Balkans – Civil Society for Shared Society in the Western Balkans” regional project implemented by Centar za promociju civilnog društva (CPCD), Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM) and Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) and financially supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA).