Youth Centre Herceg Novi was officially founded on 27th January 2003 as a non-governmental and non-profitable organization. Inofficially the organization has been active since 2002. The purpose of its coming into existance was to carry out the voluntary work with children without parental care residing in Children’s Home in Bijela, which is the only such institution in Montenegro.

As the past years brought wars, victims and exiles, Children’s Home in Bijela became the meeting spot of many cultures, religions and nationalities. Being a voluntary organization, YCHN has found the space for action in the work with these children. It is not only the absence of parental care that makes their development harder. Upon leaving the Home, they also have to deal with the problem of effective integration into the society, and this is one of the fields where YCHN aims their activities at. In addition to this, the children constantly perform poorly at school. This is where we saw the chance to reach the mutual goal of satisfying personal ambitions, as our TARGET GROUP are exactly these children.

Working on voluntary basis, the members of a civil society actively contribute to life quality improvement, get to the realize their own ideas, as well as fully participate in shaping their social and natural envirionment. Engaging volunteers of different professions, such as teachers, engineers, doctors, students, athletes, craftsmen, pupils, etc. we got in touch with the people who are willing to spend their time in an useful and fulfilling way with the beneficiaries of Children’s Home “ Mladost“.

Our services are provided primarily to children, and then to parents, other citizens of Montenegro and state institutions. Our work can be defined within the following activities, depending on the target group.

Children- directed activities: creative workshops (arts, music, cooking, clothing...); sports workshops (football, basketball, swimming...); environmental workshops; students’ support (foreign languages, maths..); prevention workshops (alchohol and drug abuse, smoking...)

Parents / citizens / institution-directed activities: lectures, debates, pannel discussion.

Since the beginning of our voluntary work we have been receiving a great deal of help and support from the Home’s both management and staff. Along with Herceg Novi Municipality that consistently provides funds for our projects, we also get the support from Herceg Novi Tourist Organization, private companies, Europe Commission in Brussels (Youth Programme), USA Emabssy in Podgorica, the Government of Montenegro, and many others. YCHN members have been attending many volunteering and mentoring seminars, among which are the ones in Novo Mesto, Radovljica (Slovenia), Jagodina and Novi Sad (Serbia).

The Youth Centre is also a part of YOUTH-Montenegro Project, as well as included into Children and Youth Social Policy Stategic Action Plan for the city of Herceg Novi.

The decisions regarding YCHN are made by the Executive Board and the Assembly. There are more than 40 volunteers inside the organization. The organization works together with similar organizations from Slovenia, Bosnia and Hertzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, etc.