The Regional Meeting of Youth Associations as held in Ponta Delgada last Saturday. This meeting, promoted by the Regional Directorate for Youth, was attended by over 20 associations to discuss and analyse the challenges that youth associations will face in coming years.

The establishment of a letter of commitment of youth associations was under consideration at a meeting attended by the Regional Director for Youth, Bruno Pacheco. This document aims to define the broad guidelines to which the associations and the Government gather share efforts in order to enhance the existing resources.

"Taking into account the economic and financial reality we currently face due to external factors, we believe there should be an additional effort on an efficient management of existing resources," said Bruno Pacheco at the sidelines of the meeting.

The sharing of equipment, promotion of joint projects, creation of a database of initiatives, sharing of resources as well as the new strategies for raising private funds, are some of the issues addressed by letter of commitment, which is now at a final drafting stage.

As Bruno Pacheco stated, "we must face the new times with other and methods of action," alluding to the need of breaking with some status that still exists, particularly with regard to networking.

As a platform for dialogue between associations and the Azorean Government, another meeting was scheduled for the first half of next year, which will address different subjects, such as EU funds for youth.
 
Moreover, the beta version of the youth associations portal was also presented during the meeting (www.associativismo.drj.azores.gov.pt/) which includes, among other features, the youth associations roadmap; an area dedicated to associations where they may submit applications, request information and provide resources.

"We are confident that associations, as a school of citizenship, will succeed in these changing times, innovating and creating new collaborative ways of working with and for the community," stated the Regional Director for Youth. In this perspective, the Government of the Azores, in addition to financially contributing within its reach, provides tools that may enhance intra-associative collaboration.

Today, there are 60 associations in the Azores - some already registered and others currently under registration - with about 10,000 youngsters registered as members, working for an estimated 20,000 youngsters.