At last week’s Odžak Municipal Council session: the Youth Council presented its initiatives to the local authorities

Odžak Youth Council seeks space, funding youth strategy

“We submitted three official initiatives to the mayor and the Municipal Council. All initiatives arise from legal obligations and were launched solely in the interest of the young people of our municipality. The Youth Council will continue to act responsibly, transparently, and in partnership with institutions to ensure that young people receive the conditions they deserve.”

After carrying out a street action in which more than 230 citizens participated—clearly and loudly expressing their support for young people and their demands by signing the petition—the Youth Council of the Municipality of Odžak submitted three initiatives to the Municipality of Odžak with the aim of creating conditions for stable and long-term youth work in this local community. The initiatives were submitted as part of a campaign supported by the PRAGG project, as was the case in other municipalities across the country.

This action was not merely a symbolic gathering of young people and citizens around shared ideas, but a strong and unequivocal message to the local authorities that the issue of youth position cannot and must not be treated as secondary or temporary. Instead, it must take one of the central places in the development policies and strategic documents of the local self-government unit.

The first submitted initiative relates to securing an adequate and permanent space for the work of the Youth Council—a space that should be accessible to all young people and developed as a hub for planning, education, creative expression, gatherings, networking, and the implementation of socially beneficial activities. The goal is for this space to become a true youth resource center.

The second initiative is focused on introducing systematic annual financing of the Odžak Youth Council from the municipal budget. This would ensure long-term stability, institutional support, and financial predictability for the first time in a structured and transparent way, enabling the Council to plan and implement projects of public interest for young people.

Together, these two initiatives are not merely formal requests but fundamental prerequisites without which young people in Odžak cannot realize their full potential or be systemically included in the social and political life of their community.

The Youth Council also organized a public citizens’ forum and a series of focused discussions with representatives of the authorities, while the process for the third initiative has been launched—focused on drafting and adopting the “Youth Strategy of the Municipality of Odžak.” This strategy will serve as a long-term framework for planning and implementing youth policies, ensuring that individual measures and activities are not carried out sporadically or without direction, but are instead connected into a coherent and strategically guided youth policy.

Last week, at the 6th regular session of the Odžak Municipal Council, the President of the Youth Council of the Municipality of Odžak, Iva Dujaković, presented information on the Youth Council’s initiatives aimed at strengthening the position of young people and improving the conditions for their work and participation in the community.