“Open Youth” believes in and since its establishment has helped to build a better community although Bulgaria is still an imperfect place, in spite of great progress made in the past years. Access and opportunity are not equal for all, and, as we imagine the equitable society we dream of, hard work, moral strength, and dedication to purpose. We work to create a more just society, so that all people will have access to more opportunities and are included in its development. We are dedicated to fighting bias, bigotry, and racism by promoting understanding and respect among all races, religions, and cultures. This broad-based rather than single-constituency approach makes us unique, and we work against all forms of discrimination and intolerance. While various social movements and citizen engagement campaigns can be credited with directly confronting such issues, racism and intolerance still persist in many parts of the globe.

“Open Youth” serves to its best as a source of information about anti-bias programs and activities being implemented in schools across the cities, it operates in. The ideas presented on this Web site represent some of our ideas and experience, where one can find useful initiatives to step on.

“Open Youth” recognizes that racism and prejudice as occupying a dark period in the history of humanity. Ethnic, religious, and sexual intolerance, slavery, segregation, and apartheid, to mention just a few issues concerning race and tolerance, have figured prominently in the historical narratives of many nations and regions of the world.

If a young person grows up within an intolerant society, s/he may believe that racism is normal and customary. The inequality comes from a fear of different beliefs, practices, or appearance. These way stereotypical assumptions about ability and value are formed. In relation to that we try to show the young people the peaceful and tolerant way the life can be.

What we do? We give opportunity to young people with different backgrounds to work together and to present the differences in their cultures, customs and habits to both themselves and to the other people from the local community throughout the whole year. Thus we aim at increasing their knowledge and skills to work in difference circumstances from the ones they are used to. The campaign includes participation in various trainings, celebrating of fests together and building of long-lasting intercultural relations.

We do:

• Information campaigns about the European Union, where we explain its different aspects and where can be found further information for:
  • History of the European Integration
  • How the European Union works
  • EU institutions
  • Enlargement
• tolerance campaigns, where by music we try to fight AIDS, smoking or sexual intolerance. “Open Youth” tries to teach the young people to form their own opinion and to defend it in the best way it is possible for them. We organize for them debates where the young people fight for different thesis and try to convince the public.
• health-information campaigns – Our health campaigns are aimed at different groups of young people in order for them to receive more information on the topics of drugs and AIDS prevention.

When we do any type of campaign, we give the opportunity to the young people to realize their ideas. The method “youth teaches youth” is a based methodology used in our campaigns works.