UPOR – Empowering youth work by forming an association of youth workers

Written by Nik Paddison 

Who are you and what do you do? 

Hi, my name is Ajsa, I am a youth worker by vocation. For twenty-plus years, I have been doing youth work and calling myself a youth worker in Montenegro – a country where this has been, and to a certain extent still is, a completely unknown concept.

Throughout these years, I have been consistently advocating for youth work and promoting it to people who are engaging with young people in the civil sector – both under the umbrella of “youth work” and other sectors. And this is the reason that I came to be involved in UPOR.

What is UPOR? 

The direct translation of UPOR “Udruženje Praktičarki i Praktičara Omladinskog Rada u Crnoj Gori” is “Association of Practitioners of Youth Work in Montenegro”. The wording was well considered because the title describes ‘youth worker’ in its widest sense.

It is not just about the ‘face-to-face youth worker’, it is also those in the community of youth work who are educating youth workers, who are dealing with youth policy, who are researching youth and youth work, and those who manage youth organisations. This is why we used the term ‘practitioners of youth work’, in order to include more of those people who are in different ways connected to youth work.

I want to highlight that while youth work is mentioned in the Law on Youth, it does not acknowledge it as a profession. So, currently youth work is still not a fully recognised profession in Montenegro, but we are working on it.

Why was UPOR established? 

There is a historical connection from over twenty years ago. An international organisation called PRONI (it later became Forum MNE in Montenegro), came to the Western Balkans or former Yugoslavia, bringing the concept of youth work to divided communities.

One of the aims was to encourage reconciliation through work with young people and thus contribute to building a more sustainable peace. This is when a more structural introduction to youth work first appeared, something that has influenced youth work developments in the country over the years.

Now 20 years later, in 2024, Forum MNE was again one of the leaders in a process of consultations on the needs of youth work in Montenegro. One of the things that came up was a desire for an association for youth work, even if the profession is still not recognised – one of our beliefs was that creating the association would act as leverage to advocate for the profession to be recognised.

So, after this series of consultations, in December 2024, the Association’s founding assembly was held. 25 people were attending from many different youth organisations and parts of Montenegro. This assembly elected a leadership team; I was elected as president, with Alexandra Gligorovic and Mirela Rajkovic being elected as vice-presidents. There is also the president of the assembly who is Dejana Dizdar.

All four of us are well-experienced within the youth work field and connected with developments at the European level. This experience was recognised as something that will be useful for the start of the Association.

How do you see UPOR supporting the recognition of youth work?  

There are a lot of expectations on us, but we need to go step by step, we cannot do everything at the same time. These expectations are because we are a country where almost nothing has happened for the political recognition of youth work.

Our intention is that the Association should be a place where we unite the expertise and experience of people who are connected to the youth work field. Together, we become a much stronger advocate for youth work recognition, particularly towards the policy level.

But also, what we discovered in our consultations is that there is a substantial lack of self-recognition among the community of practice in Montenegro. There are a lot of people, particularly those who are just getting into this field as volunteers or as paid staff, who do not identify themselves as a youth worker. Instead, they talk about themselves as someone working with young people, or as someone who works in the civil sector, or as someone who works on human rights.

This has become our first challenge. We are aiming to rejuvenate our community of practice and those who connect their identity to the youth worker identity and who are aware that youth work exists as a profession.

The second challenge is more complicated and is about political recognition. It is very difficult to even establish initial communication regarding policy at the national level because there have been so many changes in the ministry responsible for youth.

However, there are some positive developments in policy. Youth work is mentioned as a method and a tool for serving young people's development. Unfortunately, at the national level, there is a disconnection between the policy frameworks and how they are implemented. Youth work is mentioned in policy but not acknowledged in reality.

On the other hand, there is more clarity at the local level, we are seeing an appetite for understanding that youth work and youth workers could be allies in supporting young people's development.

UPOR is focusing on these two tasks: to build the community and rejuvenate it and to push youth work at the policy level. Once we have started on self-recognition and political recognition, then we need to start touching on social recognition.

Where does UPOR stand in terms of connecting with the European level?  

This comes very naturally to us because we have quite a few members who are very well connected with other youth organisations and networks at both regional (Western Balkans) and European levels. These same people are also very much in touch with the European youth field – the National Agencies and SALTOs of the Erasmus+ Youth programme, and the Council of Europe Youth Department.

Another aspect of the European level is AYWA, the European Alliance of Youth Workers Associations. We were invited to apply for membership. In May 2025, at their first assembly meeting, we were accepted as members - together with the newly formed Croatian Association.

This is a really big boost for us. We can promote this in Montenegro to show that associations such as ours are not a new invention, they exist in many countries, and of course at the European level.

How do you see the work of UPOR connecting to the European Youth Work Agenda? 

Our connection to the European Youth Work Agenda and its priority areas is in relation to specifically four of the areas. ‘Promotion and recognition’, ‘quality development’, ‘develop and expand the youth work offer’, and ‘beyond the youth work community of practice’.

For the first, it is clear, and I have already talked about the need for and our strategy towards different aspects of recognition. Rejuvenating the sector marks the beginning of quality development, something we really need to work on in the coming years. In terms of expanding the youth work offer, we really believe in the idea that every young person should have access to youth work.

For the priority area beyond the community, as a small country, we see cross-sectoral collaboration as crucial, for example in our membership we already have people who are working in the educational field, in the youth offices, and those who are civil servants.

We need the Agenda, and soon the Roadmap from the 4th European Youth Work Convention will add to this, as a resource and support for the work we are doing.

Where would you like youth work to be in Montenegro in five years' time?  

I could give you a wishful thinking answer and I can give you a realistic answer!

I will try to be realistic! I really hope for the following three things specifically: In five years, every municipality will employ a person who identifies as a youth worker. Someone who is able to actually do youth work and is supported by local-level decision-making, funding, and resources.

In five years, we will have recognition of youth work at the policy level. In five years, there will be young people in every town and village demanding youth work.

Let's recognise who we are and what we do and what we can bring to society. By doing this, I hope these things can come true.

Ajsa Hadzibegovic

For twenty-plus years Ajsa Hadzibegovic (on the right side of the picture) has been consistently advocating for youth work in Montenegro and promoting it to people who are engaging with young people in the civil sector