Youth policy refers to providing systematic support for young people, which is based on their needs. The long term goal of the youth policy is to ensure participation of young people in all aspects of social and political life, and to improve their standard of living. This support consists of a series of measures and activities implemented by state bodies, institutions and civil society organizations. These measures and activities are implemented by state bodies, institutions and civil society organizations.

Ever since the foundation of the Belgrade Open School (BOS), the focus of its activities has been young people, to whom we offer Educational programmes and services which empower them to become active members of society and agents of social change. Apart from this, BOS also actively works on advocating for the establishment of a systematic and continuous support for young people, which has lead to improving youth employability, their gaining economic independence faster, and active participation on issues that concern them.

Since its beginnings, with the desire to inform young people about all issues concerning them as well and as adequately as possible, BOS created the Mingl portal in 2007. Mingl was created with the following goal in mind: to provide high school students with an overview of information on academic studying, scholarships, volounteering, courses, workshops, seminars and so on, based on which they can actively think about their education, professional development and career. The portal also nurtures authorship, so special attention is paid to author texts and columns that deal with youth topics and current events. Members of the editorial staff cover and critically observe various topics, they especially keep up with the youth sector(employment, studies, entrepreneurship, cultural activities of young people…), the IT sector, literature, art and new youth trends. Over the first six years of its existence, Mingl informed high school students, however, with time, it has grown along with its readers and started dealing with topics intended for young people in general. Mingl works with the Union of Serbian High School Students and the Youth.rs portal. Within the portal there is also a database of higher education institutions in Serbia, as well as a special educational channel ‘’Videopedia’’, which contains short educational video clips, on various topics. The authors of the texts on Mingl are young people from all over Serbia. And the content is updated on a daily basis which you can follow by visiting the following site: www.mingl.rs. The Mingl editorial staff currently has 16 members. The Mingl portal is a member and one of the founders of the Online Media Association, the first association of its kind in the region, along with 16 other internet portals from all over Serbia.

By forming the youth policy institutional framework (in 2007), in forming the Ministry of Youth and Sport, adopting the National Youth Strategy, we have established the priority areas that need to be worked on, by institutions, as well as civil society organizations, and all this in order to improve the position of young people in the long term.

Thanks to its many years of experience, BOS continued to advocate for the further development of the legal-institutional framework, and especially contributed to building the capacities of both local youth offices and youth organizations, so as to improve the quality of activities at the local level. On the other hand, we continue to provide support for young people in areas defined as priority through educational programmes and services.

Aside from directly working with young people, in the development and advocating for practical policies domain, BOS also focuses on improving employment by: linking education and the labour market, and through career guidance and counseling.

Apart from cooperating with the Ministry of Youth and Sport, BOS is also a member of the Serbian Youth Umbrella Organization, where we continue to actively contribute to making the SYUO’s vision a reality. Namely, apart from BOS’ involvement in the highest ranking political body of SYUO, the Management Board, BOS has also greatly contributed to the creation of other relevant strategic documents: The Career Guidance and Counseling Strategy, the Law on Youth, relevant documents in the education reform process in Serbia, the National Youth Employment Strategy until 2020. Furthermore, BOS has also actively participated in the process of establishing better regional cooperation in the field of youth policy, and as the result of that, The Regional Youth Cooperation Office of the Western Balkans was formed.

Keeping in mind the numerous strategic topics, and the fact that youth policy is intersectoral, BOS, through its activities and programmes, continues to actively contribute to improving the position of young people, and to getting young people acknowledged by all relevant actors.