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COOPOWER – Strengthening cooperative employment practices for the empowerment of vulnerable youth

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DRP0301177

COOPOWER – Strengthening cooperative employment practices for the empowerment of vulnerable youth

Partners:

Funded: Interreg Danube Region Programme (DRP); Programme priority – A more social Danube Region; Specific objective 3.1: Accessible, inclusive and effective labour markets

Duration: 36 months (01.04.2025 – 31.03.2028)

Total budget: 1.793.390,00 EUR

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Territorial disparities are significant in the Danube Region (DR) countries in terms of accessible employment for young people from diverse backgrounds, therefore it is crucial to place strong policy focus on supporting the labour-market integration and empowerment of vulnerable young people, especially in disadvantaged, marginalised regions. With targeted policies for vulnerable youth, the labour markets of the DR can become more inclusive and socially responsive, creating a supportive and empowering environment which cultivates economic growth and development.

COOPOWER aims to enhance the employability and socioeconomic inclusion of vulnerable youth across the DR by fostering intersectoral cooperation, promoting innovative and effective solutions, and informing evidence-based policy development. Through tailored measures, knowledge sharing and stakeholder engagement, COOPOWER aims to support the empowerment and labour market integration of vulnerable youth in 8 countries, and contributing to more socially inclusive labour markets in the DR and beyond.

The innovative approach of the project lies in the newly developed solutions: models of intersectoral cooperation for supporting the employment and empowerment of vulnerable youth. Cooperation models are not integrated in youth policies or applied in a systematic way on a local level.

Project activities:

WP1. Establishing baseline and capitalising on existing knowledge and practices

First, it is important to capitalise on the already existing knowledge and practices of the DR and increase our understanding of the individual and systemic factors and mechanisms at play when addressing regional disparities, youth unemployment and disadvantaged target groups. The first SO lays the foundations therefore for the overall cooperative nature of the project (O1.1) through the implementation of collaborative territorial and local (diagnostic) analysis (ACT1.1) and the mapping of effective collaboration-based practices supporting vulnerable youth in PP countries (ACT1.2) -which guide the cooperative implementation process and inform future interventions for youth empowerment and inclusive labor markets.

WP2. Strengthening local cooperation and enhancing transnational policy discourse

Second, new stakeholder networks will increase intersectoral cooperation on multiple levels: 1) Local Cooperation Incubators (ACT2.1) in every PP country will engage local stakeholders for supporting youth employment based on intersectoral cooperation; 2) the Transnational Dialogue HUB (ACT2.2) will raise attention to the importance of intersectoral cooperation models and enhance policy discourse on the territorial disparities in employment opportunities of (vulnerable) young people in the DR. A Joint Sustainability Strategy (O2.3) will be developed for effective operation of the LCIs and the HUB, and the transferable application of the local and transnational networks beyond the project.

WP3. Evidence-based learning for adaptable solutions

Third, COOPOWER responds to the outlined challenges by designing adaptable solutions and promoting evidence-based decision-making. Pilots’ actions (D3.1.2) will be co-designed and tested 58 (O3.1) to develop adaptable models of intersectoral cooperation (O3.2) to integrate vulnerable youth into the labor market in disadvantaged regions. The solutions and project results overall will be translated into local and transnational strategies (O3.3 and O3.4).

COOPOWER will produce 9 strategies and develop 6 local solutions, tested separately in BG, HU, RO, RS, SK, UA, benefiting more than 800 young people across PP countries, while bringing together in total 18 organisations to cooperate within the partnership, and engaging at least 600 stakeholders in the activities and events of the local or transnational networks.

Target groups:

  • vulnerable youth aged 15-30 (beneficiaries)
  • various stakeholders: youth and youth policy researchers, youth policy experts, local decisionmakers and representatives of local public bodies, practitioners, youth workers, social workers, local SMEs, employers and youth associations.