Project title: “eUPSHIFT workshops”
Donor: UNICEF, USAID
Duration: 18 months (October 1, 2021 – March 31, 2023)
Location: RS, USK and B&H
About the project: UPSHIFT is an innovative program created within the UNICEF Office of Innovation that combines leading approaches to development, social innovation and entrepreneurship to empower young people and adolescents to become social innovators and entrepreneurs. Through each eUPSHIFT workshop, about 30 to 50 adolescents, in small teams (3 to 5 people), work with their mentors and thus acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for problem-solving, critical thinking and engagement in their local communities. The mentors of the teams are teachers, pedagogues, psychologists and other adults, who will be trained to use the UPSHIFT methodology in working with young people. After the eUPSHIFT workshop, five teams will be awarded a grant of 15,000.00 KM for the implementation of small projects that they design in their local communities.
Since 2019, Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the countries implementing this program, and by 2022, 4 online eUPSHIFT workshops have been implemented in BiH. Through this project, the Genesis Project will implement the 5th and 6th eUPSHIFT workshops, aimed at the northeast of Republika Srpska and the Una-Sana Canton. In 2023, the first BiH eUPSHIFT workshop is planned, open to all young people in the country.
The eUPSHIFT program is targeted at people of both sexes, with no preference for girls or boys. Young people from vulnerable groups, such as people with disabilities, members of the Roma population, young people from villages and places geographically distant from larger centers, families from lower socioeconomic status and young people without parental care are especially encouraged to apply. In order to enable all interested and selected students to participate in the online workshop, technical equipment in the amount of 12,000.00 KM will be procured for eUPSHIFT clubs in schools. Teachers will be especially encouraged to participate in training for eUPSHIFT mentors in order to master the methodology of conducting eUPSHIFT online workshops and be able to use it in their future educational work, using the equipment purchased in school eUPSHIFT clubs.
For more information, visit the UPSHIFT project website: www.upshift.ba